Word: mirandas
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...badgered the coach, the guidance counselor and the principal. "Why don't you let her do something else?" asked Jose Miranda, whose daughter Patricia wrestled on the high school boys' team in Saratoga, Calif. "How about gymnastics? Or volleyball?" He begged her to give it up, even threatened to sue the school to get her off the mat. She wouldn't relent. Jose, a Brazilian-born family doctor, wanted his daughter to concentrate on school; he also feared for her safety. And for him, there was the obvious question. "Why would a woman want to wrestle?" he asked her. "That...
...match for his determined daughter. He agreed to let her wrestle if she got straight A's, and Patricia, now 25, delivered. She faces even tougher foes as a member of the U.S. women's wrestling team, which, like the sport itself, is making its debut in these Olympics. Miranda is a favorite in the 48-kg (105.5-lb.) division and leads a four-woman team into Athens. Each has fought off the tomboy taunts to get there. As it happens, most have grappled with personal tragedy as well...
They hope to repeat the successes of other women's championship teams, the 1998 U.S. Olympic hockey and 1999 U.S. World Cup soccer teams, which boosted the popularity of their sports. "I'm not some staunch feminist who wants to tell girls that they have to wrestle," says Miranda. "I just want them to know that they can." At a high school tournament her junior year, someone in the crowd yelled, "You're a joke!" She wept in the bathroom after the match. "It was the best thing that ever happened to me," she says. "I was able to know...
...Miranda had also been hit hard off the mat--her mother died at 40. Although Miranda was only 10 at the time, she accepted the death as a lesson for her own life. "I realized that my life would be one-fourth over if the same thing happened to me," she says. "So I needed to take on some challenges fast." She not only made the Olympics but also graduated from Stanford, in 2003. Yale Law School awaits...
...PATRICIA MIRANDA TELA O'DONNELL AGES 25 (Miranda), 22 (O'Donnell) HOMETOWNS Saratoga, Calif. (Miranda); Homer, Alaska (O'Donnell) EVENT Women's wrestling THE DRAMA The event is making its Olympic debut--a victory in itself. Miranda's dad begged her not to wrestle. Sorry, Pop, the kid's good. THE COMPETITION Two Japanese sisters, Chiharu and Kaori Icho, are medal favorites...