Tricia Saunders

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Tricia Saunders , née Patricia McNaughton , (born February 21, 1966 in Ann Arbor , Michigan ) is a former American wrestler and current coach. She was four times world champion in women in free style between 1992 and 1999.

Career

Saunders comes from a family where wrestling was very important. Grandfather, father, and brother were all wrestlers. She herself started wrestling at the age of seven, but back then she mostly had to wrestle against boys because women wrestling was still in its infancy and there were hardly any female wrestlers. In 1976 she was first junior champion of Michigan.

Saunders never had an opportunity to wrestle in her high school and college years. She therefore concentrated on gymnastics in those years. But when women's wrestling gained popularity in the mid-1980s, she began wrestling again in 1989. Under her maiden name McNaughton, she won the US championship for women for the first time in the class up to 50 kg in 1990. At the 1990 World Cup in Luleå , she finished sixth and a year later in Tokyo, fifth. She moved to Phoenix , Arizona and became a member of the Sunkist Kids wrestling club . The US top wrestler Townsend Saunders became her trainer. In 1992 Tricia and Townsend Saunders married.

In 1992 Saunders became world champion in Villeurbanne / France for the first time in the weight class up to 50 kg body weight. In the final battle, she defeated the strong Japanese Yoshiko Endo . In the following year 1993 she could not defend this title in Larvik / Norway . She lost there in the weight class up to 47 kg in the final against the Chinese Zhong Xiue , but came second.

In 1995 she had to be content with fourth place at the World Championships in Moscow in the weight class up to 47 kg behind Miyu Ikeda from Japan, Zhong Xiue and Jelena Jegotschina from Russia . In 1996 she celebrated two great international successes. She first became international Asian champion in the weight class up to 50 kg in the lion's den in Japan and then took her second world title in Sofia in the weight class up to 47 kg. In the final battle, she won over the French Angélique Berthenet-Hidalgo .

At the World Championships in Poznan in 1998 and in Hildursborg / Sweden in 1999, she then won the world championship titles No. 3 and 4. In Poznan she won ahead of Miyu Ikeda from Japan and Inga Alexejewna Karamtschakowa from Russia and in Hildursborg she won the weight class up to 46 kg Body weight before Zhang Xiue and Inga A. Karamtschakowa.

When she participated in the last World Cup in 2001 in Sofia, she was no longer successful. She lost her two fights against Misato Shimizu from Japan and Ayse Guneri from Turkey and only came in 15th. Overall, Saunders was one of the most successful wrestlers in the short history of women's wrestling. Since women's wrestling was only included in the Olympic program in 2004, she could not take part in any Olympic Games.

After her playing days, Saunders continued to wrestle. She coached the US women's national wrestling team for a number of years, and in 2004 she and her husband looked after the US women's Olympic team. In September 2011 she was inducted into the FILA International Wrestling Hall of Fame for her services to wrestling .

Tricia and Townsend Saunders have three children and live in White Sands.

International success

(WM = world championship, women only wrestle in free style)

  • 1990, 6th place , World Championships in Luleå / Sweden , up to 50 kg
  • 1991, 5th place , World Championships in Tokyo / Japan , up to 47 kg
  • 1995, 4th place , World Championships in Moscow , up to 47 kg, behind Miyu Ikeda , Japan, Zhong Xiue u. Elena Egoschina, in front of Lila Ristevska, Australia a . Helene Escaich, France;
  • 1996, 1st place , intern. Asian Championship, up to 50 kg, ahead of Kozue Kimura, Japan, Liu Hong-Mei, China and the like Wu Li-Chuan, Taiwan ;
  • 1999, 1st place , World Championships in Hildursborg / Sweden, up to 46 kg, in front of Zhong Xieu, Inga A. Karamtschakowa u. Mette Barlie;

American championships

Tricia Saunders became a total of eight US champions.

swell

  • Trade journal Der Ringer from 1992 to 2001
  • US Wrestling Association website

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Tricia Saunders inducted into FILA International Wrestling Hall of Fame in Istanbul, Turkey , accessed on January 18, 2012 (English)

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Saunders, Tricia
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Saunders, Patricia; McNaughton, Patricia (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American wrestler and trainer
DATE OF BIRTH February 21, 1966
PLACE OF BIRTH Ann Arbor , Michigan