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Texan Tamyra Mensah-Stock won a gold medal at the World Wrestling Championships in Belgrade, Serbia, on Thursday.In the finals match, Mensah-Stock defeated Japan’s Ami Ishii, winning by pin fall in the first period and becoming a two-time world champion.
Last year, Mensah-Stock, who wrestles in the 68 kg weight division (around 149.9 lbs), became the first African American woman to win a gold medal in wrestling at the Olympics. Not long after the Tokyo Olympics, she took bronze at the 2021 World Wrestling Championships in Oslo.
While still in school, Mensah-Stock won two state championships for Morton Ranch High School in Katy, not far from Houston. She went on to attend Wayland Baptist University in Plainview, where she won the Women's Collegiate Wrestling Association championship tournament in 2014 and 2017.
On Wednesday, the 29-year-old clinched her trip to the gold medal match with a 10-0 semifinal victory over Moldova’s Irina Ringaci, the 2021 world champion at 65 kg (143.3 lbs).
In 2019, Mensah-Stock won a gold medal in the World Wrestling Championships in Nur Sultan, Kazakhstan. She also placed third in the 2018 World Championships in Budapest, Hungary.
In an interview with the Austin-based FloWrestling sports outlet after her semifinal victory Wednesday, Mensah-Stock said she was "feeling confident" about her finals match.
In the team race, Japan took home first place, while the U.S. came in second.
Also on Thursday, three-time world champion and 2016 Olympic gold medalist Helen Maroulis fell in her finals match, taking home a silver medal. Amit Elor, an 18-year-old at her first world tournament, won gold.
On Wednesday, U.S. wrestler Dom Parrish won a gold medal in Belgrade. Sarah Hildebrandt and Mallory Velte won bronze medals in their weight classes.
Earlier in the week, Kayla Miracle won a silver medal.