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to give her respect. “There weren’t many women coaching
boys. I was one of the first women to coach wrestling on the high school level. I was coming in as a national champion. They could see I was serious. I had skill and I loved to teach. I showed them that I wanted to teach and to make them bet- ter,” she said. In late 2001, the International Olympic Committee announced that women’s wrestling would be added to the Olympic Games. It came too late for Shannon and many of her friends who helped pioneer the sport for women. “Every year when we were competing,
we thought the announcement would happen the next year. When I retired, I knew it would still be a few more years before we got into the Olympics,” said Shannon. “All I wanted was positive things for the sport. When they announced it, I felt like our job was done. It was very rewarding for me.” Shannon is tremendously impressed
with the progress that women’s wrestling has made in the decade since that announcement. “It has advanced so much. The girls
are so tough now. It shows what all those years at the Olympic Training Center and
“All I wanted was positive things for the sport. When they announced (women’s wrestling would be added to the Olympics), I felt like our job was done. It was very rewarding for me.” - Shannon Williams-Yancey 4-time World silver medalist
the other programs they developed have done for the sport. Their technique is bet- ter and they are stronger and faster,” she said. Shannon Williams-Yancey is a teacher
at Freedom High School in Oakley, Calif., in her 13th year as an educator. She teaches health and fitness courses at the school. When she first arrived at Freedom, there were no P.E. classes which girls attended. She started a fitness and motion class, now teaching fitness lessons for life to over 100 high school girls.
She and Mark have two active daugh-
ters, Malia (8) and Makeila (6). She and her husband together coach their daugh- ters’ two soccer teams. The girls also
Florida Red
Death Valley Blue
enjoy dance, karate, swimming, gymnas- tics, horseback riding and Girl Scouts, keeping their parents running all over town with their activities. So far, the girls have not been interested in wrestling. Shannon remains close with some of
the other women’s wrestling pioneers, making time to visit with Vickie Zummo, Tricia Saunders and Afsoon Roshanzamir-Johnston. She also com- municates with Marie Ziegler and Sandy Bacher. With so much going on in her life, her wrestling years seem so long ago. “I really miss those days,” she said. As with the other women pioneers,
there will always be a place for Shannon Williams-Yancey at USA Wrestling.
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