Tamyra Mensah-Stock
First Black Female in the U.S. to Win Gold in Wrestling
Tamyra Mensah-Stock depicted during a wrestling competition. Adapted from a photo courtesy of United World Wrestling.
During the 2020 Summer Olympics, held in Tokyo, Japan, in 2021, Tamyra Mensah-Stock competed in the women’s 68-kilogram freestyle wrestling final against Blessing Oborududu from Nigeria. Tamyra defeated Blessing 4-1 and made history, becoming only the second American female to win gold at the Olympic Games and the first black American female to do so. Tamyra celebrated her win with tears and expressed her hope that black American girls would be inspired to follow in her footsteps and become Olympic wrestlers, saying:
These young women are going to see themselves in a number of ways, and they’re going to look up there and go, I can do that. I can see myself.”
Tamyra Mensah-Stock was born in Chicago, Illinois, on October 11, 1992. Her mother, Shonda Wells, is an Illinois native, and her father was from the West African country of Ghana, which he left at the age of 30. Tamyra grew up in Houston, Texas, and attended Morton Ranch High School in Katy, Texas, with her twin sister, Tarkyia.
While they were freshmen, Tamyra’s sister was the first to join the wrestling team. Tamyra set her sights on track and field instead. It wasn’t until the age of 15, during her sophomore year, that Tamyra dabbled with wrestling. Her sister and the school’s wrestling coach, Mark Balser, advised her to try her hand at the sport with a practice session. When she did, she was pleased with the experience.
Tamyra almost gave up wrestling after her father died in a car crash while driving home from one of her school matches. Tamyra fondly remembers him as the loudest one cheering from the stands during competitions. After deciding to stick with the sport, she found success, becoming the Texas High School Girls Champion in 2010 and 2011. More wins came in college, during her time at Wayland Baptist University. Tamyra earned a bachelor's in Exercise and Sports Science and became a two-time WCWA (Women’s Collegiate Wrestling Association) Nationals champion (2014 and 2017). She enjoyed another first-place win at the U.S. Universities Championship in 2015.
More career wins came over the years, from World Wrestling Champions and her historic Olympic match. The Olympic victory came with a prize of $37,500, made possible by the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee. U.S. athletes with gross incomes below $1 million receive the winnings untaxed.
Tamyra Mensah-Stock depicted with her mother, Shonda Wells. Photo courtesy of Tamyra Mensah-Stock via Instagram.
After her father passed away, Tamyra saw her mother Shonda struggling to make ends meet. Shonda loved to cook, and while working as a certified nursing assistant, she scaped together a little extra income by selling food she prepared on a portable grill. Tamyra had every intention of using her Olympic winnings to buy her mother a food truck—which she had promised five years earlier.
Shortly after her story made the rounds, Cameron Davies, the owner of Cruising Kitchens—a food truck manufacturing company in San Antonio, Texas—stepped in. Davies researched Tamyra and loved what he saw. He contacted the Olympian and told her he planned on gifting her mother with a top-of-the-line food truck worth $250,000. Not surprisingly, Tamyra responded by saying she could barely fathom it.
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