World champion Jacarra Winchester to compete at 53 kg for Olympic year

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – 2019 Senior World champion Jacarra Winchester has announced that she will move down to 53 kg for the 2020 Olympic year.

A World champ at 55 kg, which is a non-Olympic weight, Winchester was forced to decide on a new weight class for the 2020 season.

“I’m going 53 kg because I was in the middle at 55,” Winchester said. “I tried different and bigger weight classes in the past. I went 59 kg at the Dave Schultz International, and a year before that, I wrestled 62 kg at the same tournament. I’ve also wrestled 57 kg overseas, but I just feel like I’m too small for those weight classes. In order for me to have the most success, 53 is the way to go.”

Winchester had been a steady presence on the Senior level for a number of years, but her breakout season came in 2018, when she made her first Senior World Team, knocking off returning 2017 World bronze medalist Becka Leathers at Final X. Winchester went on to take fifth in her Worlds debut.

In 2019, Winchester maintained her spot on top of the U.S. ladder, winning her second-straight World Team bid. This time, she emerged as the best in the World with a 5-3 performance against multiple-time age-group World champion Nanami Irie of Japan in the finals.

Little did most people know, Winchester had already decided what weight she would compete at for the Olympic year.

“This decision was completely up to me. I got some advice from the National Coaches, but it all comes down to knowing yourself,” she said. “I ultimately made the decision to go to 53 for the Olympic year once I made the World Team at 55 kg last year. That was a major reason why I went 55 kg because I was perfectly in between 53 and 57, so I could go either weight, but I started making the transition to 53 kg right after the World Championships in Kazakhstan.”

Helping her be successful in the transition is a talented staff of professionals from the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Training Center as well as the National Team Coaches.

“I’m working with a dietician, Rob Skinner, who makes a diet plan for me, so I’m sticking to that. I also have a lifting plan from Mason Walters to go with that,” Winchester said. “I do my cardio separate from practice. I go to practice to sharpen my technique with the coaches, not to cut weight. After practice, I’ll get my cardio in, even if it’s just walking on the treadmill for 20 minutes. So I’ve got a good plan in place to get my weight down the right way.”

Some of the frontrunners expected to join Winchester at 53 kg is 2016 Olympian Haley Augello and 2019 National Team members Katherine Shai, Dom Parrish and Areana Villaescusa.

Follow Winchester’s 2020 journey on Instagram @jacarra016