Donna Rose, while 51-years-old, has only been a women for 10-years. For the first 40-years of her life she was Dave, a successful business and family man, but she was living a lie. In her youth, she was a good wrestler and football player. Some 25-years after her last match she returned to the mat. It was a tough journey. A lot had changed, with her and the wrestling world.
She began training again and entered the U.S. Open Women’s Freestyle Wrestling Championship. It didn’t take long after she showed up for the whispers to turn to internet searches. The committee was forced to hold an impromptu meeting to decide rather she would be allowed to compete. They came back in agreement. Donna would wrestle and make history. The only match she won was the first, but she won a bigger battle with herself.
“When I won that match,” Donna said, “it was a sense of euphoria, relief and accomplishment unlike anything else that I have ever experienced. It made it all worthwhile. And because I did it as Donna, it was the most honest I have ever been on the mat. I didn’t need to be the best. I didn’t need to be #1. My biggest opponent going into this match wasn’t Iris Smith, it wasn’t the people sitting there at the scoring tables. My biggest opponent was my heart, and between my ears, and those are opponents I know I can vanquish.”