Grappling for Progress

Sara McMann, the 63-kg (138.5-lb.) wrestler, is proven; she finished second at the 2003 world championships. Unlike her teammates, McMann, 23, followed a sibling into the sport. Her older brother Jason wrestled for McDowell High in Marion, N.C., a small, Bible Belt town in the western part of the state. The football coach told Sara's mother that it would be "a cold day in hell before a female wrestles in McDowell County." That guy must have frozen his machismo off when Sara made the boys' high school team. Unfortunately, another kind of hell awaited: Jason was murdered five years ago. Says McMann: "I don't have to dedicate any kind of outcome to him. No matter what happens, I think he'd be proud of me because I'm doing exactly what I love."

Will the U.S. fall in love with this team? The story lines say we should, but Canadian, Japanese and Russian women are more experienced. If the U.S. soccer team had won the silver in Atlanta, would as many girls be playing today? So for these women, all that's at stake is the future of their sport. "They definitely love you if you win," says Miranda. "That's all part of the game." Miranda has won over one tough convert already. Her once reluctant dad will be cheering in Athens, watching his daughter pin down a dream.