Yesternight was filled with glorious feets as American Tamyra Mensah-Stock became the First woman of African descent to win a gold medal in wrestling at the Olympics. Taking part in the women's 68-kilogram freestyle wrestling, Tamyra made it to the finals and faced off Nigeria's Blessing Oborududu in an intense bout.
The top-seeded Mensah-Stock defeated second-seed Blessing Oborududu 4-1 after seizing points with two takedowns in the first period. By winning silver, Oborududu made history by becoming the first Nigerian athlete to win an Olympic medal in wrestling. After the exciting final, 28 year old Tamyra commented on the historic elements of her final with Oborududu, "I'm like, 'Oh my gosh, look at us representing. It's so freaking awesome. You're making history, I'm making history. We're making history. So it meant a lot." She also spoke about her desire to inspire Black girls to pursue wrestling and her family's heritage in Ghana, where her father was from. Mensah-Stock lost her father while she was in high school; he died in a car crash coming home from a wrestling meet, according to Team USA. "He would have been the loudest one here," she said. "He would have been so proud." Tamyra added.
To reach the final, Mensah-Stock, who is from Katy, Texas, blitzed her way through a tough draw. Her first match was against Sara Dosho of Japan ( 2016 Olympic gold medalist and 2017 world champion). She then moved on to China's Feng Zhou, who pulled out a surprise win against Mensah-Stock in early 2020. Both of those elite opponents failed to score a point against the American in Japan, who beat them each by a 10-0 score.
32 year old Oborududu actually persisted through a knee injury to make it to the finals. According to the Chairman of the Caretaker Committee of the Nigerian Wrestling Federation Dr. Daniel Igali “She Did her best. We have been treating that tender knee all through the tournament. Surprised she was able to take a full double attack". Oborududu sailed into the final of the women’s 68kg freestyle wrestling after a dominant win over Mongolia’s Battsetseg Soronzonbold to gain revenge after losing to the same opponent in Rio.
After three Olympics, her first being the London 2012 Games, she had set herself a target of clinching a medal at the World championships or Olympics. With that done, the Business Administration graduate now plans to retire after her long career, but she might stay heavily involved in Nigerian Wrestling. She remains a role model for many Nigerian girls looking to take up wrestling. “A lot of the young wrestlers are coming up now and they keep saying, 'I want to be like Blessing, I want to be like Odunayo Adekuoroye.' Now everybody loves wrestling in Nigeria.” She said.
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