Tela O’Donnell joined the boys wrestling team at Homer High School in Homer, Alaska as a junior after winning a fight against the local school board. She became the second female wrestler to place in the state wrestling tournament, joining Melina Hutchison who was the first in 2000. 

O’Donnell competed one season on the women’s wrestling team at Pacific University before electing to enter the United States Olympic Training Center. 

She won the 121-pound title at the Women’s University Championships in 2002, but was upset by Tina George for a berth on the U.S. Women’s National Team. 

A three-time United States National Team member, O’Donnell beat George, a two-time World silver medalist, to become a member of the United States Olympic women’s wrestling team in 2004, the first year that women’s wrestling was included in the Olympics. O’Donnell finished seventh, but later was moved up to sixth when a Puerto Rican wrestler was disqualified after failing a drug test. 

She coaches high school wrestling in Homer, Alaska, and is special projects director and national camps manager for Wrestle Like A Girl. O’Donnell has organized empowerment camps in 20 states and supported a gender-based violence initiative in Pakistan, in coordination with the U.S. Department of State. 

O’Donnell has also appeared on the Discovery Channel’s Alaska: The Last Frontier television show.