#ThrowbackThursday: Four-time World silver medalist Shannon Williams

For girls growing up in the wrestling community these days, it may be hard to understand that there was a time when women’s wrestling was not in the Olympics, and there were very few girls wrestling at all.


There was a group of pioneer athletes in the late 1980s and 1990’s who not only competed with skill and passion, but also helped open up opportunities for the next generations to participate and grow in the sport. Four-time World silver medalist Shannon Williams was one of those great athletes and leaders.


The daughter of a wrestling coach in Ontario, Calif., Williams wrestled for two years on the high school team, and thought her wrestling day would be over after graduation. However, she entered a women’s wrestling tournament and after she won the event, she was told she had earned a chance to wrestle in the World Wrestling Championships. It was the beginning of a long and successful career in freestyle wrestling.


For the next eight years, Shannon Williams was one of the nation’s best women’s freestyle wrestlers. Shannon won four World silver medals (1991, 1993, 1994 and 1997). She also placed fourth in the World two times (1990, 1995) and was fifth in the 1996 Worlds. Shannon was a four-time U.S. Nationals champion and four-time U.S. Nationals runner-up.

Trivia Question: Name the three different weight classes that Shannon Williams represented the USA at the Senior World Championships.


Williams attended Chico State University and became a member of the Sunkist Kids, a club which supported many of the early pioneers in women’s wrestling. She was not only talented as a wrestler, but had a friendly, upbeat approach which made her a great role model and a fan favorite.


It was a time where often the women athletes had to find men or boys as training partners, there were no training centers or women’s college programs, and there were few coaches who had focused on helping the women in the sport. It was the effort of Shannon, her teammates and peers on the Senior level, who advanced the sport and knocked down barriers at every level.


When Shannon retired from competition in 1998, she had started her career as a teacher. Women’s wrestling would not become an Olympic sport until 2004, well after she had moved on to the next phase of her life. However, her time within wrestling was not over.


The first year after retirement, she served as an assistant coach for the 1999 U.S. Women’s World Team, which won the World Team title in Boden, Sweden. It was the first and only time the U.S. has been Women’s World Team Champions.


Her coaching career also included stints as an assistant coach for a boys high school team, and a head coach for a girls high school team. She is not currently a wrestling coach, but has been very active coaching youth in sports, as well as mentoring them as a teacher.

Trivia Answer: The three weight classes Williams entered at the World champions (and the years she entered) were 50 kg (1991, 1993, 1995, 1996), 51 kg (1997), 53 kg (1990, 1994).


International Achievements

• Four-time World silver medalist (1991, 1993, 1994 and 1997)

• Fourth in 1990 and 1995 World Championships

• Fifth in 1996 World Championships

• 1993 and 1998 Pan American Championships champion

• Three-time Sunkist International Open champion (1991, 1995 and 1996)

• Three-time Klippan Open champion in Sweden (1993, 1994 and 1996)

• 1998 Poland International Open champion

• 1995 Clansman Invitational champion (Canada)

• 1995 Gilbert Schaub Open champion (France)

• 1992 Danish Open champion

• 1991 Taiwan Open champion


Domestic Achievements

• Six-time World Team Trials champion (1991, 1993-96)

• Four-time U.S. Nationals champion (1991, 1993, 1995-96)

• Four-time U.S. Nationals runner-up (1990, 1992, 1994, 1997)

• Second in 1990 &1992 World Team Trials

• 1995 and 1996 New York AC Christmas Open champion

• 1997 West Regional champion

• 1994 USA Wrestling Women’s Wrestler of the Year and 1994 USOC Women's Wrestler of the Year

Coaching Achievements

• Assistant Coach of the 1999 U.S. Women’s World Team in Boden, Sweden, the first and only U.S. women’s team to win the World Team Title

• Assistant wrestling coach for the boys team at Wooster High School in Nevada, the first female wrestling coach for boys in the state.

• Head coach of an all-girls team at Thousand Oaks High School in California, many years before there was an expansion for girls wrestling in the state.