I returned to competing full time but I was under the new direction of Coach Izzy Izboinikov. Izzy was from my area growing up, he coached our rival High School and I remember him coaching against me in High School. Instantly Izzy and I bonded as athlete and coach, I believed 100% in his philosophies, which allowed me to let go and completely trust my coaches. 2005 was a great year for me I was back from surgery and making waves. I placed second at Nationals to Tina George. Going into trials I was feeling great. Tina was not able to compete at trials that year so I won trials but we were to have a special wrestle off three weeks later to see who would make the world team that year. I trained hard for that match but in the end I lost again to Tina. I was again devastated I just could not understand why I was always top three and never number one. 

After world championships that year I went to a reach the peak seminar. I was sponsored by the Olympic committee and was for 2008 hopefuls. I attended and could not be more thankful. Brandon Slay was the keynote speaker. He gave an amazing speech, but one thing I picked up from him was accountability and support. He told a story about how he placed 8th at Nationals in 1999 the year before he won his Olympic gold in Sydney. He then wrote letters to his inner circle, his coach, parents and good friends. He asked them what he needed to do to improve his wrestling, and they all responded with very critical feedback. He took what they had told him and applied it to his wrestling their feedback helped him make the team and win a gold medal at the 2000 Olympics. I then did the same; I asked my close circle what do I needed to do to be number one. It’s hard to look in the mirror sometimes and you need your close circle to help keep you accountable, this journey is not an individual effort, it takes a village. My family and friends were honest with me and they suggested I do a better job of managing my weight, getting to bed earlier and staying out of the night scene. Now once you ask you have to follow through and I did. I made goals to never complain about anything, I would come to practice everyday with a smile on my face and happy to be able to wrestle. 

2006 was off to a great start I took third at New York AC Holiday International, second in Clansmen International, Sunkist Kids/ASU International Open champion, Second in Dave Schultz Memorial International,Ivan Yarygin Memorial International champion (Russia). Then I went to Sweden for another tournament before Nationals. I was warming up and my partner was just doing basic double leg takedowns I posted my leg and heard a loud pop. I knew instantly that I had blown out my other knee. The trainer came over and I could see in her eyes that she knew it too. My heart sank and I knew I would have 6 months of rehab ahead of me. This meant everyone else would be getting better and I would again just be trying to get back to where I was before surgery. I can’t explain how terrible I felt. The Olympics were two years away and I was going to be set back again. I was placed on a flight the next day and sent back for surgery. 

This time I was more motivated than ever, I had done this before and nothing was going to stop me. I threw myself into my rehab, my lifting and my homework but this time I added sports physiology. I begin to meet with a sports physiologist at the Olympic training center twice a week. This was one aspect of wresting I had always pushed to the side and that was a mistake. I attribute a huge amount of my success to what I learned over the next two years in sports physiology. 

Once again I was back on the mat in 2007. I won nationals that year and I made my first world team. Finally I was number one in the US! I placed 10th at world championships, which was a problem because only the top 8 qualified for the Olympics. I would still have to qualify the weight for the US and I would need to make the Olympic team as well. There were three qualifiers left, Pan American Championships, a tournament in Canada and the final chance in Finland. 

2008 came much quicker than I had expected but I was ready in every way possible. I had a great group of coaches, teammates and unbelievable family and friends cheering me on. I went to the World Cup in China that year where I would face Japan’s Saori Yoshida. Yoshida was the returning Olympic champion but she was much more than that. She had never lost a match on the senior level. I had been waiting for my chance against her. Izzy and I had prepared a game plan specific for wrestling her. I went out on the mat confident and ready to get after it. I won the match and became the first women to beat Yoshida on the senior level. I was ecstatic the Olympics were just around the corner and I had just beaten the Olympic champion. Anyone is beatable on any given day. Yoshida is an amazing wrestler and if I had wrestled her 10 times I think I might have lost 9 times but I beat her once and that’s what counts. 

I returned from the world cup with the job of qualifying the weight. I prepared for the Pan Americans championships that were to be held in Colorado Springs at the OTC. The winner of the Pan Am’s would qualify. I made it to the finals and then lost to Canada. Second is really never any fun. That meant I would have to travel up to Canada for yet another qualifier just before Nationals. I went up and qualified the weight, thank goodness, with just enough time to come back and get ready for Nationals. 

Nationals went well and I won the tournament! I sat out of trials and waited to see who won the mini tournament and who would face me (best two out of three matches in the challenge tournament.) Sally Roberts won the mini tournament and we were set to wrestle our challenge tournament. Sally won the first period but I came back to win the next two periods to win the match. The second match was very similar again Sally won the first period and I came back to win the next two periods and captured my spot on the Olympic team! The feeling you get when you know your hard work paid off and you get to go and represent your country in the greatest games of all time is amazing. I felt like I was floating on air and the world had stopped for a brief second. That night I spent with my family as we celebrated our success and I thanked them for all the support over the years. 

The Olympic experience was again amazing! It’s everything you imagine it will be and much more! The air is filled with hope and excitement and you fill like you have more energy then you know what to do with. I ended my Olympic journey with a 9th place finish at the 2008 Olympics. My journey to the Olympics was more than just the final few months. My journey was about the people I meet and learned from along the way, the adversities I learned to over come, and the opportunities I was given in the very beginning. 

Once again I found myself finding wrestling rooms to work out in on the Monterey peninsula. I stumbled upon the Monterey Wrestling Club with head coach Roberto Dixon. Roberto had a strong freestyle background wrestling in the 1987 world Championships and Pan Am games competing for Panama. At the time I didn’t know if I would ever wrestle again, but Roberto was just what I needed. He gave me the boost to compete again. I went to the 2002 US open, it was held in Las Vegas so it was just a short trip for me. I had no idea what to expect; I hadn’t really competed since high school and several of the girls in my weight class were my idols growing up. I put all of that out of my mind and I just went out there to have fun. I was an unknown walking into the US Open and I loved being the underdog. I placed third at Nationals that year qualifying me for the US trials where I again placed third making my first National team. 

After that point I knew I was capable of great things! I knew it was going to be a lot of hard work and finally I knew I needed to be training with the best. I made the commitment and moved to the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. At the time they didn’t have room for me so I found a house to rent close to the OTC and I worked at Sherman Williams (mixing paint). Once a place opened up I moved on campus at the OTC and I begin to take college courses at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. I was traveling and competing again and picking up speed. 2003 looked like this: third in U.S. World Team Trials, fourth in U.S. Nationals, second in University Nationals, second in Sunkist Kids International Open, Fourth in Dave Schultz Memorial International. 

I was still on the National team with only two girls ahead of me for the 2004 Olympic team, Tela O’Donnell and Tina George. I had beaten Tela in 2002 Nationals but I have never been able to beat Tina. This was going to be the year; I was feeling good my training was great under the direction of Terry Steiner. I felt like nothing could stop me!

I competed in the Kiev Grand Prix in Ukraine taking second and in the Manitoba Open in Canada taking 4th and in January I traveled to the Yarygin Memorial International in Russia. I was on fire; my wrestling was flowing and I felt great entering the tournament. I made it to the semis and was set to face a Russian. On the other side of the bracket are Tela O’Donnell and another Russian. This is the funny thing about international competition the rules always favor the host. When the bouts came out I was to face Tela and the two Russians were to wrestle each other ensuring a Russian in the finals. Tela and I step on the mat and within the first minute we are in a scramble, we both hear a loud pop and the action stopped. My knee had an instant pain and within 30s the pain was gone. The doctor came out to the mat and looked at my knee; he ran a few tests and told me he believed I tore my ACL. I laugh and thought to myself “this guy is crazy” so I disagree with him and demand to continue wrestling. We begin wrestling again Tela got a two on one and began moving me all over the mat, every time I would try to post my leg it would give out on me. I ended up calling it a day and forfeiting the match. 

I returned to the US where I received an MRI revealing a complete tear in my ACL and a partial tear of my MCL and meniscus. I could not have been more devastated, it was the end of January and Nationals were set for April and then Olympic trials in June. I didn’t have time to have surgery so I had to tape up every day and do the best with what I had. I lost confidence in myself and it showed on the mat. I finished trials in 5th placed and watched as my good friend Tela beat Tina George in the finals of the Trials. I was happy for my friend but heart broken as I sat next to my grandparents in the stands watching with tear-filled eyes as the announcement of the first ever Women’s Olympic team consisting of 48kg Patricia Maranda, 55kg Tela O’Donnell, 63kg Sara McMann, and 72kg Tocarra Montgomery. 

Tela chose me to be her training partner for the Olympics; which meant I would again postpone my ACL surgery to help her train. It was an opportunity I could not turn down and it was an amazing experience. I was able to see first hand what it takes to train for the Olympics and how the process works once you arrive in the Olympic excitement. Athens was more exciting than I could have ever imagined. If you have never been to an Olympics I highly recommend going and watching. There is no other time in the world where so many people come together to cheer on their home countries and support their athletes. It is truly amazing!!! We ended up coming home with two medals for the women, Sara Mc Mann took home silver and Patricia took home a bronze. Tela took 5th and Tocarra took 8th. 

I returned home and right away went in for my surgery. If you wrestle as long as I have you are going to get hurt there is no doubt about it. It’s just as much part of our sport as showing up to practice. It’s how you react to that injury that makes all the difference and for me this injury was a blessing. It forced me to look at areas of my wrestling that I was neglecting. For the first time I really began to critically watch videos. I did my homework off the mat and became a student of wrestling. I started to focus more on my lifting and I came back from my ACL surgery stronger than before. I still had to get my body back in wrestling shape but that came with just a little time. 

Marcie Van Dusen - 2008 Olympian 

It would be hard to share my road to the Olympics without going back to the very beginning. It was the first opportunity that ended up being the most fortunate and biggest lesson of all. 

My older brother T.J. began wrestling in Jr. High School with his best friend Scott Chapman. My two older sisters and I were forced to every weekend event, with long days of wrestling, in a crowded gym and way too much candy at the snack bar. As the tournaments would wind down my sisters and I would find open mat space to have our own wrestling matches. After about a year of this tradition, my brother’s coach Dave Chapman (Scotts’ Dad) asked me if I wanted to start wrestling. He said he would coach me if I wanted to learn. I agreed and from 8 years old on I was hooked! I loved competing. I didn’t care that I was the only girl around and the last picked for a partner. Every day I loved wrestling and I wasn’t going to let anyone tell me I couldn’t do it because I was a girl. 

Chapman turned out to be more amazing than I could have ever imagined. His philosophy was to coach anyone who wanted to learn; he treated everyone the same and I was no different. He had the vision to see that freestyle wresting was going to take me to the highest level. He continued to remind me that folk style season was only to prepare for freestyle, and freestyle was where the opportunities for women’s wresting existed. I competed on my men’s team in High School, two years on JV and two on varsity ending my senior year earning a spot as captain of the team and placing 4th at southern California’s CIF. 

By the end of my senior year I had already traveled to New Zealand, Australia, Poland and England on Cadet World teams and wrestling tours. I was just getting started toward a life of wrestling but was interrupted by several concussions that year. I had been to several doctors and was still having a hard time with bright lights, driving at night and becoming sick because I had such bad headaches. My family and I decided it would be best to take a few years off and head to college at California State University Monterey Bay. For the next two years of my life I was a typical college kid. Maturing, adjusting, growing, and living on my own.