John Fuller\/TheMat.com<\/p>\n
Many media members put Tina George on the 2004 U.S. Olympic Team before she actually earned the spot. In the Olympic Trials, she was defeated by Tela O’Donnell for a birth on the first-ever women’s Olympic team in wrestling.<\/p>\n
After recovering from those tough losses, George, a two-time World silver medalist, is back on track to represent the U.S. She captured her second consecutive U.S. Nationals title at 55 kg\/121 lbs. this year and is hungry to get back on the U.S. World Team.<\/p>\n
TheMat.com sat down with George and spoke with her about those losses at the Olympic Trials, and her future within wrestling.<\/p>\n
TheMat.com: You’ve not won two straight U.S. Nationals titles and three overall. Do you feel yourself separating more from your competition?
George: I hope to separate myself from my opponents, but I am not quite there yet. I am more focused on the fact that I have not gone to the World Championships and Olympics after winning the last two titles.<\/p>\n
TheMat.com: Has your motivation for this year come from not being on the Olympic Team last year or have you put it behind you?
George: I don’t think it is possible to completely put missing the team behind me. I have however refocused on my goal of a World Championship and Olympic championship. Missing the team was a major setback but wrestling is about overcoming adversity and I hope to turn last year’s disappointment into a motivational story in 2008.<\/p>\n
TheMat.com: In your mind, how would you have done at the Olympic Games last year?
George: After comparing my past results with those that won medals I feel confident that I would have been in a great position to bring home another medal. <\/p>\n
TheMat.com: What have you learned from your experiences last year?
George: I learned to give my best day in and day out and to enjoy the thrill of wrestling. Most importantly, I learned to rebound from adversity with integrity and determination.<\/p>\n
TheMat.com: How has the Army’s World-Class Athlete Program (WCAP) helped you throughout your career?
George: WCAP has provided not only myself but other athletes the opportunity to compete on the international level. While competing, we represent a positive image of the Army around the world as well a provide the Army with a useful recruiting tool.<\/p>\n
TheMat.com: What are your thoughts on the new rules?
George: I think that the new rule are beneficial to my particular style of wrestling which as very aggressive. I am more excited about wrestling all of the matches in one day. The new rules force weight control for optimal performance which I think is most beneficial to me.<\/p>\n
TheMat.com: How much longer do you plan to compete?
George: I can only say that I am committing through the 2008 Olympics.<\/p>\n
TheMat.com: Where do you see women’s wrestling being at in another four years, after it will be in its second Olympic Games?
George: I see the technical aspect of women’s wrestling developing at a very fast pace. Already the technical aspect has changed tremendously and shows a growing number of participants.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
John Fuller\/TheMat.com Many media members put Tina George on the 2004 U.S. Olympic Team before she actually earned the spot. In the Olympic Trials, she was defeated by Tela O’Donnell for a birth on the first-ever women’s Olympic team in wrestling. After recovering from those tough losses, George, a two-time World silver medalist, is back […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wrestling"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":6}},"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2B7Di-kj","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1259\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}