Yale’s Miranda wins bronze at world championships

GUANGZHOU, China, Sept. 30, 2006 — Yale University law student Patricia Miranda won a bronze medal at the recent world championships in Guangzhou, China. It was her fourth medal in the world championships. She beat junior world champion Oleksandanda Kohut of the Ukraine 1-0, 1-0 at 51 kg/112.25 pound weight class.

Miranda won silver medals in 2000 and 2003 world championships before capturing a bronze medal at the 2004 Olympics in Athens at 48 kg/105.5 pounds. Miranda fell to Japan ’s Hitomi Sakamoto in the quarterfinals. Sakamoto won her fourth world title.

“Nobody wants to seem ungrateful for a World medal,” Miranda told USA Wrestling. “I definitely am grateful for the medal. There are definitely things today that I need to improve on. There are things I disappointed myself with. For instance, I have to hold myself accountable if I don’t get going in matches.”

Editor’s note: Miranda began wrestling growing up in California and was a member of the boys team at Saratoga High School. She went to Stanford and earned a spot on the varsity team at 125 in her senior year. After graduated from Stanford, she was accepted to law school at Yale but deferred her admission to train for the 2004 Olympic Games. She took off the 2005 season to concentrate on her studies at Yale.