Continued from page 19 Murata, shown at the 2007 Worlds, has stayed involved in wrestling on the medical side of the sport. Larry Slater photo.
points. I think I felt a sense of urgency, that I had to do some- thing instead of relaxing and wrestling. I learned a lot from that trials,” she said. Murata made the commitment to wrestle another Olympic cycle, with eyes on the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China. “I wanted a job, I wanted a family. But I didn’t have anything concrete, which job I wanted or where I wanted to live. It seemed as though I was already wrestling and still felt pretty good. I decided to give it another try. And the only time I had to do it was basically now. I was in the ideal situation, with good training partners, good facilities, good food, a place to stay with a lot of things available for you,” she said. Late in that Olympic cycle, Murata made the decision to drop down to 48 kg, a difficult move for her, but something that paid off with results. She made both the 2005 and 2007 World Championships team, with a fifth place finish in 2007 at 48 kg. At the age of 37, she tried out for the 2008 Olympic Team in Las Vegas and fell short, a spot that went to Clarissa Chun. “I thought I had a better chance the second time around. You expect you are going to be in the finals and do well. It didn’t happen that way. You have to believe in yourself. Like every- body else, I believed I was going to be on the team. I tried to do everything I could do to make the team. It was important for me to feel as though I did everything I could so I wouldn’t have regrets. I didn’t make the team, but I don’t feel like there some secret move, secret coach or secret place that would have me make the team. That was not it. It just wasn’t my day,” she said. Murata planned for life after wrestling, with a desire to become a physician’s assistant. Right after the 2008 Trials, she moved back to Nevada to become a caregiver for her mother and step-father. After her mother passed away, she was accept- ed to PA school in Florida, where she spent time with her father and was a full-time student for two years. After she graduated,
20 USA Wrestler
she moved to Hawaii to help out her elderly uncle and aunt who lived there, as well as start her medical career. “I am now working as an orthopedic PA for Straub Hospital. I enjoy working for a sports medicine physician and an orthopedic surgeon. It is a learning experience. Because I chose sports medicine and orthopedics, I feel that I can still be involved in wrestling, but a different side of it,” she said. Murata has been on the medical team at some USA Wrestling
events, including the world’s biggest tournament at the ASICS/Vaughan Junior and Cadet Nationals in Fargo, N.D. She deals with the injuries that occur and helping athletes make the correct choices concerning them.
“I enjoy working with the athletes, but on the medical side of
it. A lot of people who work for wrestling have been wrestlers themselves. Having learned other skills that can contribute to somebody else’s journey and their competition allows you to know both sides. You are very empathetic to what their needs are, with their desire to win. The other side is can I help them achieve their goal, but can it be safe to do that? I enjoy being able to help people. That is what this profession is. I feel we make an impact and a difference for people,” she said. Living in Hawaii, Murata does not get to the mainland as much as she’d like, but she keeps up with her past teammates and coaches through social media. She was part of the reunion of Women’s Wrestling Pioneers at the U.S. Open a few years ago. She also finds time to follow the current young women who are competing for the USA at the Olympics and World level. “I am excited to see all of the women growing up. A lot of the women on the team now were around when we had a National Team and we were in the Olympics. They were training and competing and doing everything, and there was never a ques- tion. A lot of the women we have now are doing so well, training so hard. It is exciting to see just how much technique they have, and to watch their skill levels grow,” she said.
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