Her face bruised and swollen, tears streaming down her cheeks, U.S. wrestler Sara McMann stood on the awards podium Monday and registered little joy for the historic silver medal she had just won.
“I don’t think there is anything more painful in the world,” she said of finishing second. “I did everything I could. I worked as hard as I could, and it just wasn’t enough.”
The woman who beat her, Kaori Icho of Japan, also wept on the podium, but her tears were of a different sort.
The two fought an excruciatingly close match in the 63-kilogram (139-pound) class that went to Icho 3-2. All points were scored on takedowns.
McMann, 23, who wrestled on the men’s team at Lock Haven University in Pennsylvania, had a 2-0 lead after the first three-minute period. But Icho regained the initiative and tied the score with just under a minute to go.
“When it was 2-2, I was doing whatever I could to get the last takedown, trying to fight through her hands,” McMann said.
But it was Icho who was quicker and McMann who slipped. The takedown went to the Japanese woman with about 20 seconds left in the match.
The match was an approximate replay of their meeting in September’s world championships at Madison Square Garden. Icho won that encounter 4-3 in overtime.
“She is my best competitor and my best rival,” Icho said through a translator. “Sometimes at competitions our eyes meet and we smile.”
More Top Picks 7am2m Sonic
This was the Olympic debut of women’s wrestling, and the U.S. also took a bronze medal in the 48-kg (105.5-pound) class. Patricia Miranda, 25, a former wrestler at Stanford, easily outpointed Angelique Berthenet of France 12-4.
A more favorable draw could have resulted in a silver medal for Miranda, the second-ranked woman in the world. But she had to face her main rival and eventual gold medalist, Irini Merleni of Ukraine, in Monday’s semifinal. Merleni won 9-0, then took the gold by defeating Icho’s sister, Chiharu, on classification points in overtime.
Reflecting on their roles as pioneers in an undainty sport in which women are still the object of sexist jokes, Miranda, who will attend Yale Law School this fall, said she hoped the two medals won by U.S. women would help open doors and minds.
“I realize that what I [did] here is bigger than myself,” she said.
McMann said the loss still stung but “I’ll have to get over my emotions and become a better wrestler.”
As for owning the first U.S. women’s silver medal in wrestling, she said, “I’ll look back later and hopefully I’ll feel proud of myself.”