Tamyra Stock has her eyes set on redemption for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games

Tamyra Stock scores a takedown at the 2016 U.S. Olympic Team Trials. Photo by Tony Rotundo, Wrestlers Are Warriors
Team USA star Tamyra Stock, formally known by her maiden name Tamyra Mensah, unexpectedly found wrestling as a 16-year-old sophomore after her sister, Tarkiya, joined the Morton Ranch High School wrestling team in Katy, Texas.
“My twin sister actually got me into wrestling. She had a friend who convinced her to go out for wrestling and she immediately loved it. I hated it at first,” recalled Stock.
“The only reason I started was because I would hitch a ride with my sister at 6 a.m. to do homework while they practiced. Eventually, one of the coaches asked me to just try it out. At my first dual meet, I slammed this girl, who was actually well known and prestigious, which gave me the confidence to stick with it. I ended up bulldozing through my first year, coming in second at the girls’ Texas state finals,” she said
During Stock’s three years on the high school wrestling team, she not only placed second at the Texas girls state tournament her sophomore year but she also earned two girls Texas state championships her junior and senior year.
The possibility of attending college on a wrestling scholarship soon became a reality. Stock made the decision to wrestle for Wayland Baptist University with her twin sister, the only women’s college wrestling team in Texas.
“My sister and I took college trips together and several of those trips were good but Wayland hit home being that it was in Texas,” Stock said
At Wayland Baptist, Stock was a four-time All-American under Aaron Meister and Johnny Cobb. She placed fourth in 2012 at 136 pounds, third in 2013 at 143 pounds, and became a 2014 and 2017 WCWA Women’s College national champion at 143 and 152 pounds respectively.
In between her national titles, Stock took a redshirt year and gray shirted a year from college wrestling, training at the U.S. Olympic Training Center much of the time. She claimed USA Wrestling’s University Nationals championships, as well.
Throughout the majority of Mensah Stock’s time in college, she was competing on an international level, often trained by U.S. National Women's Freestyle Head Coach, Terry Steiner, Assistant Coach Emma Randall, and other op coaches.
“Terry knows my style and what I am all about. He knows how to push me to where I need to be pushed. He believes in me. Emma, Clarissa (Chun) and Terry are great. They don’t allow me to get that mental block,” Stock said.
In 2016, she was the U.S. Open champion when she beat 2008 Olympic bronze medalist, Randi Miller, to put her in the No. 1 qualifying spot for the U.S Olympic Team Trials. At the Trials in Iowa City, Stock over powered Brittany Roberts in the finals winning the championship. Unfortunately, she did not compete at the Rio Games after not qualifying her weight at the World Olympic Games Qualifiers in Mongolia and Turkey.
“I won the Olympic Team Trials but I didn’t get to wrestle in the Olympics. I had the technique to make it, but I didn’t have it mentally.” Stock said.
“She won the Olympic Trials almost prematurely,” Steiner said. “When she lost that final Olympic Qualifier, it was probably the most emotional I had ever seen her. It really hurt her. There was real pain there. She felt really bad about it. I think she has gotten past it. This past year, she won pretty much everything we put her in.”
Since 2016, Stock has moved forward and come out on top countless times. In 2017 she won gold at the prestigious Yarygin Grand Prix in Russia, becoming only the sixth U.S. woman to have ever win this event. She also became the 2017 World Team Trials champion, and the Grand Prix of Spain champion.
Stock competed in her first Senior World Championships is Paris in 2017, where she finished 1-1 and placed ninth. The performance has her even more focused on 2018 and beyond.
“The sky is the limit for her. She is an incredible athlete. She could have won Worlds. Going into the World Championships, she was practically undefeated and she had a great year. I would say the rest of the world is afraid of her but now she needs to keep herself focused,” Steiner said
Today, she resides in Colorado Springs with her husband, Jacob, while training at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in preparation for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.
“My ultimate goal is to be an Olympic champion in 2020,” said Stock “I know I can do it. My biggest inspiration is trying to get the word out that if you trust in God and believe in him, good things happen. Just let go and let God.”