Tamyra Mensah-Stock Wins Gold and Creates History at Tokyo Olympics

Lauren Henderson

CEDAR FALLS - Tamyra Mensah-Stock became the first black woman to win a gold medal in wrestling and the second female to win gold for the USA in the sport during a “poetic” final match. Mensah-Stock defeated Nigerian wrestler, Blessing Oborududu 4-1, in her closest match of the games.

Unlike other Olympians when asked if they thought they could win a medal, Mensah-Stock knew she could and always knew she would.

“I knew I could do it; I knew it would be hard,” Mensah-Stock said. “I prayed that I could do it and in my wildest dreams I knew I could.”

Mensah-Stock started wrestling in the 10th grade at Morton Ranch High school in Katy, Texas. During this time, she lost her father, Prince Mensah, to a fatal car crash. Mensah-Stock remembers that time is difficult, almost making her quit the sport she had fallen in love with.

“I wanted to stop so many times because I felt like all this pain wasn’t worth it,” Mensah-Stock says.

She found the will to stick with the sport after coming to terms that her father was cheering her on from above saying, “You better not quit – I believed in you. Keep my dream in you alive, please.”

Her father, a Ghana Native, is enemies with the country Nigeria, making her gold medal match “poetic”, beating her opponent, representing her country, and standing up for females, young and old all over the world.

“Just because you’re a female doesn’t mean you can’t accomplish the biggest of goals.” Mensah-Stock preached moments after winning. “Being an Olympic Champ is the hardest thing I have ever done in my entire life.”

Becoming an Olympic Gold Medalist in a male-dominated sport breaks all gender norms that have been previously placed. Helen Maroulis was the first female to win gold for the United States back in the 2016 Rio Olympics and recently won Bronze in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Maroulis defeated one of the world’s greatest female wrestlers in an upset match during the 2016 Rio Olympics, screaming “Normal people do win!” moments after the whistle was blown.

Maroulis recalls starting wrestling at the age of seven and at that time she noticed that most boys and coaches congratulated her win or lose just because she was a girl in a male sport. Once she practiced more and began to become better than most boys, she became a threat that nobody liked, parents, boys, and even coaches.

“The parents would be calling me names while I was on the mat wrestling,” Maroulis says. “Coaches [were] trying to make me quit or ignoring me or putting guys against me that were way better and hoping they would just beat me up and I would eventually not return.”

Teammates, Mensah-Stock and Maroulis, have both entered the predominately male sport, worked their way through rigorous practices, weight-cutting, and the unconscious biases that people hold against them only to come out on top. Mensah-Stock holds one gold medal while Maroulis holds one gold and one bronze.

Although Mensah-Stock has obtained her gold medal, she is excited to see where this road takes her saying, “There is no cap to the limit I can go.”