As told to Macey Shofroth | Photo by Duane Tinkey

The timing of Clarissa Chun’s journey to wrestling couldn’t have been more perfect. 

She took after her older brother and competed in judo for years. Then Hawaii, where she grew up, became the first state to sanction wrestling as a high school sport for girls. She started the sport her junior year of high school and immediately fell in love. 

The sport took her around the world: competing in two Olympics and winning a bronze medal and becoming the inaugural coach of women’s wrestling at the University of Iowa in 2021. 

In her first season, Chun carried on the legacy of success that the school’s men’s wrestling team has long had. Her most important accomplishment, however, is the impact she’s able to make on the female wrestlers who have come after her. 

Chun sat down with Fearless to share how she found the courage to excel in a male-dominated sport. 

The following story has been formatted to be entirely in her words, and has been edited and condensed for clarity.

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I always feel grateful for the timing of when I started wrestling and when the sport became available to me. To have an opportunity to play the sport in the state of Hawaii, the opportunity to get a college education through Missouri Valley College, because they were one of the first collegiate wrestling programs in the late ’90s.

I moved to Colorado to train at the Olympic Training Center once they decided to add women’s wrestling in the 2004 Athens Olympic Games. I’ve trained and lived in Missouri, West Virginia and almost 20 years in Colorado Springs. I coached there on the national team prior to landing in Iowa City in January 2022. 

The first time I competed in the 2008 Olympics, I didn’t anticipate that I would make the team. I was always No. 2 and 3 on the ladder for eight years, prior to making that team. I always had goals and aspirations to make the Olympic team. I wanted to be an Olympic champion. I almost felt like making the Olympic team was the harder part. The U.S. does really well at the world stage in women’s wrestling, so I had to not only beat everyone in the country, but overcome my competitor that I trained alongside. She had won an Olympic bronze medal and world bronze herself. Once I made the team, I knew that I was ready to aspire to be that Olympic champion. 

When I got there, I was just taking it all in, soaking up the moments of the opportunity to represent Team USA with such pride and energy. The energy is electrifying and like no other competition I’ve ever competed in. I can remember hearing the chants of “U-S-A!” The opening ceremonies were the most memorable experience. I didn’t achieve what I wanted to accomplish in my first year. It was a bit of managing my emotions. I needed to learn how to come back after a loss in the semifinals. I learned a lot about myself and energy management and used that to propel me for the 2012 London Olympics. I didn’t get the Olympic gold, but I felt satisfied with walking away with a bronze medal because I knew what it was like being short of that. 

I went in 2016 to the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro as a training partner. I helped Helen Maroulis accomplish her Olympic gold medal, and that was kind of my transition from athlete to coach. I am very grateful for the opportunities that I’ve had to be able to be in those different roles at different times in the Olympics. 

Applying for the University of Iowa head coaching job, I had to be fearless. I was really nervous. I wasn’t sure if I was ready for it. I didn’t know fully if that’s what I wanted to do, because I was feeling like I was in a great place as an assistant national team coach in Colorado Springs. But my reason why was to challenge myself and learn more about myself as I leaned into a position where I had to put myself out there, day in and day out. For me, that took courage. I want the women that come to Iowa to learn how to be fearless and to have the courage to go after what feels right for them. My “why” is the opportunity to help these young women accomplish academically and athletically and represent the Hawkeyes in the best of ways. 

When I started wrestling when I was 16, I wanted to be a Hawkeye. But they didn’t have women’s wrestling. The school really is synonymous with wrestling, hard work and just so much pride behind the tigerhawk. There’s a standard and expectation here that maybe can be unspoken. That’s a way we can compete and be competitive out there and represent Iowa and fight for Iowa in that way. When you’re the only major “Power 4” conference now with NCAA Division I women’s wrestling, the bar is set high. I’m so grateful that the University of Iowa was the first to jump on opening those doors of opportunities for these young women. They’ve been supportive since day one. 

I think I definitely put a lot of expectations and pressures on myself. When I first started I was told that when I’m learning how to start a program from scratch, I didn’t have to win in year one. I was given grace. And I’m thinking, “No, we’re the University of Iowa. I’m going to do everything I can to win or have our team perform and compete at the highest levels.” 

As an athlete, when people didn’t understand women’s wrestling yet, there were some people out there that didn’t believe women should wrestle. There’s kind of a mentality that it’s technically man’s oldest sport. But it doesn’t have to be limited to men. In my early years, Hawaii was very accepting for girls to wrestle. Now, with the visibility of women fighting in mixed martial arts and jiujitsu, people see women in combat sports more often than they did in the mid- to late ’90s. It was a mentality of, why? What’s your agenda? For me, I was a competitive young girl and I loved to compete in combat sports because that was my upbringing. I don’t get much of that now. 

What I smile about is when older women come up and say, “I would have loved to have wrestled. I would have been a great wrestler had that been an opportunity for me.” They should have had those opportunities to be able to express themselves and do a sport like wrestling. But it makes me smile for the changing of the minds and for the opportunities for these younger girls to get into the sport at a young age. It can teach them a lot about themselves, of how do you get yourself back up when you get taken down? How do you move forward? What things are you going to go through that are within your control and how do you manage your emotions? 

When I decided to apply for this position, I leaned on people that I looked up to as mentors and asked certain coaches for advice. I asked if they would do things differently, or what they learned. My first thing was hiring a staff that complements me and makes me better. I want to be surrounded by others that make me better and make the program better and align with my philosophy of how to best help every one of our student athletes win, graduate and do it right. Those are the three pillars I started with – every day, just making sure that they’re doing things in the right way. I’m lucky I get to work with the people I work with every day because I fully trust them and I know their heart is in the right place for every one of our student athletes. 

There are moments and days that come through and I just think, “Am I doing anything right? Am I making the best decisions for the program?” I like making sure that everyone is 1. in a good place or 2. being challenged. Whichever is needed in those moments. It’s hard for me, I feel at times, to have those hard, uncomfortable conversations that are needed and necessary. That doesn’t come to me naturally. I hope the challenging conversations are looked at as growing moments. 

I want to give ourselves every chance and opportunity to bring out our best. That was a challenge in the beginning. I wanted to challenge ourselves to do what we’re capable of doing with the support we had from the administration. It was really like Iowa started women’s wrestling – let’s see where we can take that. 

This year is the first year that it is an official NCAA sport, with additions to new programs and recruiting and everything. It’s still going to be a great challenge and push for our team. It’s a whole new year. It’s a whole new team. We’ve lost some, we’ve gained some. Every year, it’s starting all over and going after what we want at the end of the season. 

I portray fearlessness for my athletes as, “Be you.” Only you can be the best at who you are. In wrestling, there’s so many different body types and wrestling styles. Be true to you and be the best that you can be. When you feel confident in who you are and your abilities, then nothing can stop you. 

We talk about controlling what you can. Sometimes, there are so many thoughts that come through your mind that you can’t really control. They come through as self-limiting beliefs. I had them as an athlete. “Gosh, my competitor is big, she’s strong, she’s been wrestling longer than I have.” All these beliefs that are very limiting. Well, you are about to step on a mat. Where can we redirect our focus back to you? She might be bigger, but I’m fast. She might have wrestled longer, but I’m young and hungry. We restate the thoughts that are limiting with something that brings it back to your strengths and what you’re capable of doing.