By Josh Barnett
USA TODAY High School Sports
Just last year, wrestler Adeline Gray won the world championship, the Pan American Games, the U.S. World Team Trials, the U.S. Open and the World Cup and is a semifinalist for the Sullivan Award. She did not lose a match all year.

In a wrestling career that began at age 6 with the urging of her dad, Gray has done virtually everything except the one thing no American women has done: Win an Olympic wrestling gold medal.

An alternate in 2012, Gray has her eyes squarely on Rio and she has become the face of women’s wrestling.

As part of USA TODAY High School Sports’ ongoing coverage of Girls Sports Month, Gray, 25, talked about how wrestling changed her life, the importance of dreaming big and her desire to bring home gold.

Q: What is it about wrestling that spoke to you?

A: When I was a kid, soccer was my No. 1 sport and wrestling was No. 2. Wrestling was fun and something I did, but I never called myself a wrestler. That changed in middle school and early in high school when I saw the opportunities in women’s wrestling and I phased out of team sports. I saw that I could get my education paid for and I just graduated debt free thanks to wrestling and I had the opportunity to travel on national teams and Olympic teams and world teams and meet so many amazing people.

I got the opportunity to really find my voice in wrestling. Women’s dreams are so important in athletics and can bring women up to an equality standard that women are striving for politically and in so many other areas of life. USA Wrestling has given me an awesome platform and I’m so honored to be enjoying the process of becoming an elite athlete and that happened from choosing a non-mainstream sports like wrestling.

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