Oklahoma City University women’s wrestler Kristie Davis is classified as a 67-kilogram, 5-foot-5 sophomore from Albany, N.Y, majoring in nursing. There is nothing necessarily unusual about her vital information, unless perhaps you drill down to her birth date and family status.
The nine-time World Championships medalist is a child of the 70s and has a young brood of her own. She is heralded as the most decorated women’s wrestler in United States history, and her 13-year wrestling career is anything but over. Davis, married to OCU assistant wrestling coach Link Davis, has more to come home to than a pile of homework. She gets a pile of laundry, dishes and attending to her three children.
School has become an important – and valuable – piece of her life as a 30-something.
“Because I was so successful in wrestling when I was younger, education was never a priority,” Davis said. “I wasn’t good in school so I just went towards wrestling but now getting my nursing degree is definitely a priority.”
Now Davis shares classes with women who list her as their all-time favorite athlete. Davis had to adjust and transition to her role as scholar, elder and even mentor.
“Sometimes I feel like what am I doing, I’m so old,” Davis said. “My freshman year when I came in, we had recruited one of the top girls, Michaela Hutchison. I go up to sit down in my history class my first day and there’s an 18-year-old Michaela Hutchison that I’ve seen grow up. I’m 10 years older than her!”
Aside from cracking the books, her wrestling goals are still ever present – and the thing she most covets is a spot to go for the gold. Not just any gold, an Olympic gold.
Davis herself thought that perhaps it was time to transition to coaching the sport she has helped shape, but she couldn’t quite bear the thought of leaving her shoes by the mat and exiting the realm of competitive wrestling.
“I tried the coaching thing out for a little bit and just realized that I wasn’t at that stage in my life,” Davis said. “The more that I wrestled with the girls, the more I was like I don’t think I’m done yet.”
So she wrestles. Against women that grew up knowing her name, as a collegian, and of course – on the international stage where she’s thrived for the past 13 years.
Her immediate task at hand is to serve as one of the leaders of an OCU squad that’s won the last two WCWA national championships and three consecutive NWCA National Duals crowns. Davis is an invaluable asset on a team of youngsters, and the coaching staff knows how vital she is to the team’s success and cohesiveness.
“Her maturity and her experience helps the girls on the team relax,” OCU coach Archie Randall said. “Having Kristie on the team is like having somebody solid that they can go to. You can coach and we can yell and scream at them, we can gripe at them, we can push them as much as we want. Kristie does a good job of telling them to just relax and wrestle, and she’s proved that time after time after time.”
Collegiate wrestling is preparing Davis for her next – and perhaps last – shot at the Olympic success that has proven to be elusive to her thus far in her wrestling career.
“The one goal that I’ve always had was to make it to the Olympics,” Davis said. “In 2004 I was an alternate and in 2008 I took third and didn’t qualify, so I haven’t met those goals yet. With Coach Randall and Coach Davis and Coach Cygan, I’m definitely on the right track and I hope to succeed in that goal and make the Olympic team.”
Davis knows she’s racing the clock, however, and she needs to make the most of her time on the mat. Her eye is still squarely on the prize as she hopes to achieve her wrestling goal across the pond in under two years’ time.
“I’m definitely going to continue wrestling through at least the next Olympic cycle, which is 2012 in London. But then again, I’ve had everything fixed surgically, as far as knees and shoulders. Being out there again and not wrestling in pain actually feels kind of good. We’ll have to see.”
But for now, Kristie Davis the student, Kristie Davis the mentor in the OCU wrestling room, Kristie Davis the competitor can take some time to reflect on how women’s wrestling has evolved throughout her career that spans more than a decade. She has an expansive list of accomplishments to be proud of and a multitude of goals to strive towards as she continues to put her all into the sport she loves.
“When I got into the sport about 13 years ago it wasn’t about so much just me as a wrestler,” Davis said. “It was what can I do to advance the sport. Everything that I’ve done for sure has advanced the sport, and that’s what makes me proud.
“We went from not knowing anything to having 17, 18 new colleges now that have a program. It’s nice to be looked up to, but on the same note I hope the new generation of wrestlers take everything I’ve done and want to do the same thing too.”
Perhaps the student isn’t ready to stop learning and competing and start coaching, but she’s teaching lessons of her own to the ones that will follow in her footsteps. After 2012.
