Conder makes impact By Jason Bryant
Monte Conder wasn’t used to putting out fires as a high school wrestling coach in Washington. Instead, he was usually the one igniting them as his kids would often wrestle in the living room, drawing the ire of his wife.
One of those kids messing up the freshly vacuumed carpet was current Olympic Training Center women’s freestyle resident Whitney Conder, the youngest of the five Conder kids. Whitney, a 23-year-old Olympic hopeful and 2007 Junior World champion, is known for her scrambling and tenacious style, but it’s those attributes that might serve her well in her life after wrestling. She’s studying to be a firefighter. Even now when Conder returns to her native Puyallup, Wash., a city of 37,000 just east of Tacoma, she’s hit with attacks from siblings just like she was when she started wrestling when she was just an 8- year-old. “It’s pretty interesting when I come home, the first thing that happens when I walk in the door is I get tackled straight into the ground,” she said. “(Older broth- er Nate) has been ready for me a couple times.”
And the brothers know how to seize an opportunity. “Usually, he’s jumping on me first,” said
Conder. “I’ll be just walking in from the store.”
Some of the playful combat comes from Whitney placing higher than her sib- lings at the Washington state tournament. In high school, she twice placed at the state tournament against the boys at 112 pounds.
“I actually placed higher than both of them, they were kind of mad because I got taken to tournaments farther away and bigger tournaments than they went to,” said Conder. “I always kind of get the taps, ‘Oh mom and dad didn’t take me here, they didn’t take me there.’ I’m like, I placed better, What do you got now for me!?”
As 2012 approaches, Conder plans to move down to 48 kg from 51 kg and chal- lenge wrestlers like Clarissa Chun, the 2008 World Champion and Alyssa Lampe, the 2010 World Team member. The challenge ahead of her is the rea- son she got involved in wrestling in the first place.
“I like the adrenaline rush and wrestling 14 USA Wrestler
Whitney Conder has emerged as a top young women’s freestyle prospect for the U.S. at 51 kg/112.5 lbs. Larry Slater photo.
is something that was hard and pushed me, rather than something easy,” Conder said. “Not everything comes to me, I have to work for it.
“Growing up, I played volleyball and ran track and cross country,” she said. “Wrestling was my better sport. My suc- cess was pretty early against the guys, because when I was younger, I was plac- ing second in guys’ state and in junior high, I won the conference tournament twice.”
Being one of the few girls in a male- dominated sport surely draws attention. This season, two girls won high school state championships in Alaska and Vermont, while there was a media circus surrounding a forfeit at the Iowa state championships involving a female wrestler.
But wrestling, and winning as a female against the boys, drew some chatter from fans in gyms around the state. But
Conder silenced many critics with her placement in high school. “To me, it was really important,” said
Conder. “A lot of people didn’t like it, some did. It just depends. For me and my dad, it was really big for us.” Much like wrestling, where you con-
stantly try to improve, Conder’s educa- tional focus is on her passion for firefight- ing. She’s currently in early classes at Pikes Peak Community College in Colorado Springs to break into the field. “I like it because it’s a different job day in and day out,” said Conder. “There’s something always different and it’s a job that isn’t easy. You always have to work to get better. With that job, you can always become a better firefighter. You can’t be perfect, but you can always get better.”
Conder’s comments can easily be Continued on page 15
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