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Kristie Davis rolled her brilliant blue eyes toward the ceiling.
Listening to a list of her athletic accomplishments, all the world teams that she?s made, all the championship medals that she?s won, was one thing. But being called the most successful female wrestler in the history of U.S. wrestling?
?Oh, man,? she said.
Thing is, it?s true. No other American, male or female, has won more world championship medals than Davis. Not John Smith. Not Danny Hodge. Not Dan Gable.
On a weekend when Davis could make another U.S. squad during the World Team Trials in Oklahoma City, a place she now calls home, she isn?t fixated on having a chance to go to the world championships later this year and add to her career total of nine medals. she is focused instead on taking another step in her improbable journey, a step that few might?ve thought possible only a year after giving birth to her second child, a step that might ultimately lead to the one goal that has eluded her.
Making an Olympic team.
?This is something I started when I was 5 years old,? the 32-year-old said, ?and I don?t think I have very many more runs at it.?
Her previous attempts at the Olympics have ended in heartbreak.
Going into the trials in 2004, the year women?s wrestling made its Olympic debut, Davis was a No. 1 seed.
?And I missed weight,? she said.
Known then as Kristie Marano, she failed to make her 138.75-pound weight class by less than a pound, so she decided to wrestle at 158.5 pounds. even though she was way undersized, she nearly won the weight class and made the Olympic team.
She finished second.
Four years later, she retuned to the Olympic trials as a favorite to make the team. she made weight but still failed to make the team.
She finished third.
?I thought I was done,? she said.
Davis never announced her retirement, but when she found out that she needed shoulder surgery ? the sixth major surgery of her career ? she all but decided that she was done. she was sick of injuries. she was tired of competing.
She wanted to be with her family more, too.
?I felt like they had sacrificed so much for me, especially my daughter,? Davis said of now 13-year-old Kayla. ?Everything has been about me, and it?s just time for me to break away.?
Then, her surgeon told her that the shoulder surgery would sideline her for eight months.
?I don?t care,? she told herself. ?I?m not going back on the mat.?
Then, she found out that she was pregnant.
Davis and her husband, Link, had moved to Oklahoma to start a new chapter in their lives. Both were coaching women?s wrestling at Oklahoma City University, and Kristie was going to nursing school full-time.
No matter how much she told herself that she was done wrestling, she found herself longing for her sport. the more circumstances kept her from the mat ? first injury, then rehab, the pregnancy ? the more she wanted to compete.
After giving birth to daughter Lilly last June, she returned to practice at OCU. she sparred with the gals. she trained with the team.
?The more I wrestled, the more I got hooked,? she said. ?I was like, ?Oh, man, I?m back in it.? ?
If she ever really left in the first place.
?I like to think that I left,? she said, laughing, ?but I don?t think I did. It was more of a break.?
It seems to have brought some perspective. Davis is preparing differently than before, starting with her weight class. she is most naturally a 147.5-pounder, but that isn?t an Olympic weight class. So, she has decided to wrestle at 138.75 pounds, one of the Olympic weights, now instead of waiting until the year of the Games to drop down.
That way, she can face the gals that will be her toughest competition and become accustomed to wrestling at that weight.
Davis is managing her nutrition and her training better, too. she eats several small meals a day. she routinely stays 10 pounds below her maximum.
No more missing weight.
She has discovered that balance is vital. No more wild scale fluctuations. No more massive weight cuts.
Then again, for someone who?s a wife, a mother, a full-time student and an Olympic hopeful, balance is a way of life. It?s what keeps her sane off the mat. It?s what makes her a threat on the mat. and it might just be what leads Davis to her ultimate goal.
What would it mean to make the 2012 Olympic team?
Davis rolled those brilliant blue eyes again.
?Everything,? she said.
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Source: http://healthck.com/wrestler-kristie-davis-keeps-her-olympic-dream-alive/
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