Under Wolfe’s direction, Tela honed her
skills. She learned more about lateral drops and takedowns and was quickly becoming a skilled freestyle wrestler. But beyond the wres- tling techniques, Tela looks back and recogniz- es how instrumental Coach Wolfe was in her continuing in the sport. “After he died I wrote a letter to him. I wish
you could write letters to people when they are still alive,” says Tela solemnly. “What came out of the letter was me telling him how much I respected him and how incredibly grateful I was to him not just for teaching me, but for teaching others in other communities here [in Alaska], too. “It’s easy to coach those who are already
gifted in sports, but it’s another thing to pull people in to a sport and bring in the outli- ers. It’s a gift, and he was a gift to wrestling in Alaska.”
BREAKING BARRIERS FROM ALASKA TO ATHENS Through high school, wrestling was simply a fun activity for Tela. It wasn’t until she stepped outside of Alaska and competed in a national tournament in Michigan that she realized the elite level of talent she possessed. Unknown and unranked, she came in and
took first place. “I guess there was never a point where I was
like ‘Hey I’m good,’” she admits. “I was just like ‘Oh hey, I did well in that tournament, that’s pretty neat.’ But when I took first there, I thought, ‘Ok, I’m decent at wrestling.’” Her “decent” talents soon led her to Pa-
cific University in Oregon where she joined the school’s first-ever women’s wrestling team in 2002. “Pacific University was a great program for
me,” says Tela. “It was the first time I had been on a girl’s wrestling team. I thought how crazy it was that there were actually going to be peo- ple in a locker room with me.” After winning the NAIA Coaches Cham- pionship with Pacific in its inaugural year, she earned an invite to another new program: USA Wrestling’s first women’s wrestling resi- dent training program. In Colorado Springs at the Olympic Train-
ing Center, Tela continued to improve. As she did, more attention began to gather around “the girl from Alaska.” “She had an unorthodox style of wrestling,”
explains Terry Steiner, who coached Tela in the 2004 Olympic Games. “But it worked in some matches. What we really worked on was her technique.” In 2004, Tela qualified for the Olympic Team Trials. She was tasked with defeating
TELA AND HER HUSBAND, PAUL, WITH KIDS (FROM L TO R:) RAIDEN, MARI AND YUKI TAKE A FAMILY SELFIE INSIDE THEIR ALASKAN HOMESTEAD.
six opponents before facing familiar foe Tina George, the No. 1 wrestler in her 121-pound weight class, whom she’d beaten for the national title earlier that year. By pinning George twice, Tela earned a spot on the first- ever U.S. Women’s Olympic Wrestling team, which headed to the 2004 Athens Games. While she struggled on the international
Olympic stage, placing sixth overall, it’s an experience Tela wouldn’t trade for the world.
TELA TIDBIT
Tela grew up neighbors with singer/ songwriter Jewel and her family. “I always remember her playing music and riding her horse, so I definitely looked up to her. To me she was like this beautiful girl who dressed pretty, rode horses and was always singing beautiful music. I don’t know, I just thought she was fantastic. She went out into the world and became famous and sang such wonderful and emotional songs, and I think that’s amazing.”
“I got to go to Greece and wrestle—do
you know how cool it is to just wrestle for a living?” Tela says. “I was there and I was able to do that. …It’s an experience that every- one dreams of and I had the opportunity to live it.”
WRESTLING MOM Education was almost as important as wres- tling was to Tela. Following the Olympics she enrolled at Trinity College, earning her bachelor’s degree in psychology with a mi- nor in art. She later moved back to Homer and pursued coaching at the junior high and high school levels before family life took over most of her time. Tela now calls her current wrestling role “the assistant to
the assistant,” helping parents and coaches when she can and keeping her wrestling pas- sion alive. Living on her own homestead along the
Kilcher Road featured in Alaska: The Last Frontier, Tela and her husband Paul now have three young kids: 9-year-old Raiden, 5-year- old Yuki, and 2½- year-old Mari. Will there be another O’Donnell bloodline
to follow suit on to the mat? “If my kids wanted to start wrestling, I
would be like ‘Yay, do wrestling!’ because it’s a sport that I can coach you in,” Tela says with a laugh. “Right now there’s plenty of sibling and animal wrestling to keep us busy.” Growing up wrestling in the wilderness, just the way Tela prefers it.
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