Olympics-Wrestling-Thick-skinned U.S. team seek glamour of gold

By Martin Petty

BEIJING Aug 7 (Reuters) - With strapped knees, bustling biceps and tight spandex suits, women's wrestling may not be the most glamorous sport at the Beijing Olympics.

However, faced with constant ridicule, torment and neglect, the United States women's wrestlers believe it is certainly one of the toughest.

"We all know we can win gold here and hope that will change the way people think about women's wrestling," two-time U.S. champion Marcie van Dusen told Reuters.

"Girls are pushed into quitting, they're neglected, so many coaches don't want to coach women.

"They make practice tougher, don't show us any moves -- they try to get rid of us."

Van Dusen, who ended world and Olympic champion Saori Yoshida's unbeaten run of 119 matches earlier this year, wrestled boys as a junior because there were no female competitors.

"Parents didn't like me wrestling their sons," she said.

"It's a lose-lose situation, if they beat a girl, so what? If they lose, it's an embarrassment.

"I had to earn the respect and we still have to earn it, everywhere we go," added Van Dusen, 26, who took up the sport to fight back at her wrestler brother, who used to put her in a headlock as a child.

With muscles bulging from tight red vests, the fearsome foursome of Van Dusen, Randi Miller, Clarissa Chun and Ali Bernard on Thursday said they would not leave Beijing as losers.

"Our goal is four golds," Bernard said. "We want to make the U.S. women the big players in the sport."

Beijing will be only the second time women's wrestling has been contested at the Olympics having made its debut in Athens four years ago. The U.S. team won one silver and one bronze medal.

Last month, the team went on a fishing trip and ended up climbing Colorado's 14,265-foot Quandary Peak in a gruelling nine-hour team-building exercise.

Women's freestyle team leader Stan Zeamer said his wrestlers had no shortage of character.

"They've had a tough time doing this sport," Zeamer told Reuters.

"Their first few years they were discouraged, by the male wrestlers mainly. I too had a negative idea about them but I was pleasantly surprised."

Head coach Terry Steiner, who sports two cauliflower ears after an eventful wrestling career, said he had no doubt his team would win four titles in Beijing.

"There's no one that outclasses us at all," he said. "We are very capable of winning four golds."

(Editing by Miles Evans) ("Road to Beijing": www.reuters.com/news/sports/2008olympics; Olympics blog: blogs.reuters.com/china)