Following Through

The difference was the tiebreaker, but it should never have come to that.

Clarissa Chun was in position to win her freestyle wrestling match. She had reached the semifinals and was wrestling the best she ever had in her 8-year career with the American team.

"All through camp, we talked about dominating," head coach Terry Steiner said. "We talked about getting out there from the start, dominating tie-ups, dominating head positions, dominating the center of the mat, dominating the emotion of the match and the pace of the match.

"We started out pretty well, but we had lapses. We can't have lapses. It cost us."

Chun lost the first period but won the second Saturday in her 48 kg semifinal match with Chiharu Icho of Japan. When the third period ended in a tie, the match was awarded to Icho because she won the final point of the period - - the crucial tie-breaking factor. It was a heartbreaking way to lose to a five-time world champion and 2004 Olympic silver medalist.

"She's shown that she can wrestle with anyone," Steiner said, "but she has to make sure that she wrestles all the way through."

Afterwards, Chun talked through tears. Following a 55kg quarterfinal loss to Jackeline Renteria of Columbia, U.S. teammate Marcie van Dusen couldn't talk at all.

"I could have or should have done better," said Chun, from Essex, VT. "I think I needed to get my wrestling going a little bit more. I kind of fell into her game plan.

"She's good at controlling the mat, but I don't think she's great. I think I can beat her the next time we wrestle. It's hard right now. I really wanted that gold."

Later Saturday, Chun lost by fall to 2004 Olympic gold medalist Irini Merleni of Ukraine in the bronze-medal match.

Had she not had some brief lapses, Chun could have gone home with silver or even gold.

"I started off good," she said. "I couldn't clinch her leg.

She's pretty slick. I definitely felt like I could have gotten on her legs. I definitely could have won that match.

"I should have given more., attacked more. I got caught up in her tie-ups, and her pushing on me. I wanted to get her in a headlock, but I was afraid I'd slip on it."

Van Dusen had some lapses of her own in her quarterfinal loss to Renteria. In fact, she nearly didn't get that far. Had van Dusen not scored a point against the Ukraine's Nataliya Synyshyn in the final second of the second period in an earlier match, she never would have reached the quarterfinals.

"The first match, she did what she had to do to win the match,"

Steiner said. "She started a little bit slow, but she got herself going. The thing was Marcie is that she starts a little bit slow, but she seems to get going. In her second match, again, we started too slow, and we never got going.

"We were just rushing., It seemed like we were panicking and kind of falling all over the place a little bit. We're better than that. We need to tighten up and not be so panicky out there. We had our chances, even when we were down by three points. Suddenly, the match was out of our hands."

Chun's match for a berth in the final was very much in her grasp. Chun had beaten a former junior world champion in her first match Saturday. She beat a former world medalist in her second and, facing Icho for the first time, she was one step away from the gold medal match.

"We can't have lapses, and it cost us in the match against Icho," Steiner said. "Clarissa was just trying to do too much. She has such an aggressive mind set. You've got to slow down and let the match come to you a little bit. She got a little over-anxious.

"If you look at Japan right now, they're wrestling all the way through. Icho won in the last second against Merleni because she kept wrestling all the way through. We didn't keep our emotion, keep our offense. Clarissa's biggest asset is her mobility, her athleticism, her movement with varied attacks. That's what we need to see. She's got to use that."

Tommy Hine is a freelance contributor for teamusa.org. This feature was not subject to the approval of the United States Olympic Committee or any National Governing Bodies.