“I want to get the results that we are capable of. We are capable of four medals at the Olympics, and capable of winning some championships. We have the girls who can do it.” - Terry Steiner, U.S. Women’s Coach
Terry
Steiner C
U.S. National Coach has high hopes for Olympic Games
OLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – The U.S. women’s freestyle team has regis- tered back-to-back top-five finishes at the World Championships.
But U.S. National Women’s Coach
Terry Steiner is nowhere near satisfied with that. Steiner is focused on having the best team in the World.
The U.S. women are coming off a strong third-place finish at the 2011 World Championships in Istanbul, Turkey. Americans Ali Bernard (72 kg/158.5 lbs.) and Adeline Gray (67 kg/147.5 lbs.) won World bronze medals in Turkey while teammates Helen Maroulis (55 kg/121 lbs.) and Elena Pirozhkova (63 kg/138.75 lbs.) each placed fifth.
The U.S. qualified 3-of-4 women’s weight classes for the 2012 Olympic
8 USA Wrestler
Steiner’s women’s freestyle team has qualified three weights for the Olympics. Tony Rotundo photo.
Games. Three more Olympic qualifiers remain in early 2012.
The U.S. will try to qualify for the Olympics at 48 kg/105.5 lbs. in the Pan American Olympic Qualifier in March in Orlando, Fla. World champion Clarissa
Chun fell just short of qualifying the weight class after finishing seventh at the Worlds.
The U.S. Olympic Team Trials are set
for April 21-22 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City.
Bernard qualified for the finals of the
Trials by virtue of winning a medal at the 2011 Worlds. Maroulis, Pirozhkova and Clarissa Chun earned spots in the finals of the Olympic Trials by virtue of winning the U.S. Open in December. Steiner, a past NCAA champion for the Iowa Hawkeyes, talked with USA Wrestler editor Craig Sesker during an interview shortly after the U.S. team returned home from the Pan American Games.
Reflecting back on the Worlds, what were your overall impressions of the U.S. performance? We had an OK performance at the
Worlds. I would give us about a C-plus or B-minus. I know we are capable of so much more. We left a lot of points out on the mat in a lot of those matches that we could have won. We tied for third, which isn’t bad. But when I break it down indi-
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