By Reece Nagaoka
Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Clarissa Chun acknowledged luck and timing played a part in where she is today, but there is more to the story than that.

“For me, it was always striving to be my best. It was instilled by my parents at a young age that I shouldn’t start anything that I wouldn’t finish, and all they asked of me was to do my best,” she said in a Zoom interview. “They never put pressure on me to win or anything like that — that was me just putting it on myself to strive to get there.”

She’s gotten there — and beyond.

The Roosevelt High School graduate became a trailblazer for female wrestlers on many different levels.

She won a state wrestling title in 1998, the year Hawaii became the first state in the country to sanction girls high school wrestling as a sport. She also won the next year as a senior.

The 4-foot-11 dynamo parlayed her passion into a championship wrestling career, including winning four U.S. Open titles.

In 2012, the two-time Olympian won a bronze medal at the London Games, becoming the only Hawaii wrestler to win an Olympic medal.

Seven months ago, Chun was named the first coach of the University of Iowa women’s wrestling program.

Earlier this month, she reached the pinnacle, being inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in Stillwater, Okla.

“When they said I was going to be inducted, I felt very honored that some people felt that I belong in the hall, because there are amazing athletes and coaches that are on the wall at the National Wrestling Hall of Fame,” she said.

“I never really looked at my career and stopped and appreciated it as much as I did that weekend,” she added. “Throughout my career, I always felt that I wish I did more as an athlete. I wish I made one more World team, one more World medal, one more Olympics. I think that’s just me wanting to do better and cement my career a little bit more.”

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