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August 20, 2004 9:23 am

U.S. women wrestlers set for Olympic debut

By BRYCE MILLER

Gannett News Service

ATHENS, Greece - One is the daughter of a former political activist who fled Brazil.

One travels to an Ohio prison to visit her father, serving time for murder.

One, whose mother worked as a mime before moving to Alaska, teaches herself to fly-fish and play guitar at the Olympic training center in Colorado.

One deals with the 1999 death of her brother and the suspected killer nabbed by the television show "America's Most Wanted".

Together, they are a far-flung set of trailblazers known as the U.S. women's freestyle wrestling team. The foursome - Patricia Miranda, Toccara Montgomery, Tela O'Donnell and Sara McMann - begin competing Sunday for the first Olympic medals in the history of the sport.

USA Wrestling, the sport's governing body, estimates 700,000 boys and men compete in organized wrestling in this country, compared to fewer than 7,000 girls and women.

Four of those females, though, are about to expose the male-dominated sport to millions in Greece in the only new sport at this Olympics.

"I don't think they could be more diverse," said Terry Steiner, the former NCAA wrestling champion at the University of Iowa who coaches the team. "You could write a book."

In the 1960s, student revolts led Jose Miranda to the streets of Brazil - and to his future wife, Lia.

The turbulent time created opportunities for change, but risks for a young family.

"That was a large part of why they left," said Patricia Miranda, the U.S. Olympic qualifier at 105.5 pounds. "People were disappearing, people were being tortured."

Jose Miranda fled to Canada, where he attended medical school and later became a practicing doctor in the United States.

When Patricia was 10, her Japanese mother suffered an aneurysm and died after two weeks in a coma.

"After my mom died, I asked: 'What do I want to say with my life?' '' said Patricia, who was born in Monteca, Calif. "It jump-started me to ask questions a 10-year-old wouldn't normally ask.

"I think it's one of the reasons I embraced wrestling and it has a lot do with who I am today."

She is one of the top women's wrestlers in the world who put off law school at Yale to chase an Olympic dream.

"There's still a large part of the American public who haven't put their bets in yet, on whether women's wrestling is a real sport," said Miranda, a two-time World silver medalist. "If someone watches for two minutes, they'll see the pain and the strain and the legitimate things about the sport."

The strains and struggles of wrestling likely seem modest for Toccara Montgomery.

Montgomery's father, Paul, was sentenced to 30 years to life in prison for two counts of murder in 1999. According to NBCOlympics.com, Toccara visits her father twice a year at the Lebanon Correctional Institution in southwestern Ohio.

The Olympian will talk publicly about her sport - but not her father.

"I don't really want to go into that," said Toccara, who was born and raised in Cleveland. "It has nothing to do with my wrestling."

Montgomery's wrestling has led to two World silver medals and the current spot as the United States contender at 158.5 pounds.

Steiner said the situation with Toccara's father has helped her find perspective.

"Probably nothing seems as big as what she's had to handle in her personal life," Steiner said. "It's just a wrestling match - it's not going to define who she is."

When Tela O'Donnell talks about Homer, it's her home in Alaska - not the author of Greek tales the Iliad and Odyssey.

O'Donnell's Greek odyssey started when she was born to a single mother, Claire, who worked as a mime in Chicago and studied under Marcel Marceau. Claire moved to Alaska and cleared trees for their home with a chainsaw while pregnant with Tela.

"Homer's a really good place to raise kids," Tela said at the Olympic trials in May, "but maybe not to have a mime career."

Later, Tela worked on a salmon boat and played junior varsity football in the strong women's anything-is-possible world.

In May, O'Donnell stunned two-time World silver medalist Tina George, pinning her twice in the best-of-three final to earn the Olympic berth at 121 pounds.

But the tag of Homer's Biggest Celebrity, O'Donnell points out, still is a two-person race between singer Jewel and Motel 6 spokesman Tom Bodette.

O'Donnell's motor runs long after she leaves the mat while training for the Olympics in Colorado.

Off hours are spent fly-fishing, learning to the play the guitar, drawing and painting.

"And sometimes I watch people's dogs," O'Donnell said. "Some second-cousins - and the strength and condition coach."

Just weeks after Sara McMann returns from Athens, one of the men alleged to have been involved in the 1999 murder of her brother will go on trial.Prosecutors said former Lock Haven University football player Fabian Smart and three other men were involved in the beating and killing of Jason McMann, then 21, in Pennsylvania.

The three other men are expected to testify against Smart when the trial begins on Sept. 13.

"Someone getting murdered, you feel like something's been ripped away from you," said McMann, the U.S. qualifier at 138.5 pounds.

Multiple reports said the murder happened after a fight in January of 1999 when McMann was beaten unconscious, and was later dumped into a wooded part of the county and left to die.

The television show "America's Most Wanted" led police to Smart and the other men.

Sara McMann attended a death and dying class to work through her feelings.

"Yeah, I thought about revenge and stuff like that," said McMann, a 2003 World silver medalist. "A lot of my good wrestling came out of this, because I ducked my head and worked and worked and worked until I didn't think about it as much."

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