Tricia Saunders

Tricia Saunders (born as Patricia McNaughton; February 21, 1966) is an American amateur wrestler and pioneer the sport of women's freestyle wrestling. During her freestyle wrestling career, she won five FILA Wrestling World Championships medals, including four gold and one silver, never lost to an American opponent, and won eleven U.S. national titles.

Saunders was the first woman to be inducted to the National Wrestling Hall of Fame as a Distinguished Member in Stillwater, Oklahoma and the first American woman to be inducted into FILA's International Wrestling Hall of Fame in Istanbul, Turkey.

Early life and education Saunders was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on February 21, 1966. Her grandfather was an All-American collegiate wrestler at the University of Michigan in 1930; both her father and older brother, Jamie, were also wrestlers.

As a child, she accompanied her brothers to wrestling practice. At age seven, Saunders said she wanted to compete in the sport. In her first tournament, at nine years old, she won seven of her nine matches, all against boys.

At age 12, she stopped wrestling against boys in folkstyle wrestling, after compiling a career youth record of 181-23. As a girl, she was ineligible from participating on her boys high school wrestling team. A decade later, after receiving her undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin, Saunders returned to wrestling competition, participating in international women's freestyle wrestling.

Wrestling career In 1992, Saunders won the World Wrestling Championships in Villeurbanne, France, where she competed at 103.5 lbs, becoming the first American woman to win a world freestyle wrestling title.

Personal Saunders is married to Townsend Saunders, a 1996 Olympic silver medalist in men's freestyle wrestling. They have three children, two daughters, Tassia and Tatiana, and a son, Townsend.