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HER Stories: UI women’s wrestling coach Clarissa Chun helps female wrestlers create winning mindset
This story first appeared in HER Stories - Spring 2024, a biannual special section distributed by The Gazette that features stories of Eastern Iowa women who have experienced powerful paths of achievement for themselves, their families and their communities.
University of Iowa women's wrestling coach Clarissa Chun has always believed that with hard work, you can accomplish great things.
As a child growing up near Honolulu, Hawaii, Chun did it all — gymnastics, swimming, water polo, surfing and judo, just to name a few. She attended a number of local judo clinics taught by Olympic athletes and grew up dreaming of making it to the Olympics in the sport.
“It was representation and visibility, being around Olympians at a young age and seeing them and seeing they were capable of representing Team USA on the highest stage that drove me,” said Chun, 42, of Iowa City.
After switching to wrestling in high school — at 4 foot 5 inches tall, she had the determination but not the size to stay competitive in swimming — Chun parlayed that drive and belief into becoming a two-time Olympian in wrestling, winning a bronze medal at the 2012 London Games. She went on to help coach the women's national team to 17 World medals, and in 2021 she was named the first-ever head women's wrestling coach for the University of Iowa — the first NCAA Division I, Power Five conference school to offer the sport.
While Chun's Olympic pursuits were over a 12- to 14-year span, they were also the culmination of a lifetime of work competing and developing healthy habits to “find that 1 percent better,” both on and off the mat.
“Those were lessons and tools that I could reflect on and made me who I am today and who I was in my journey of that pursuit,” Chun said.
Coaching the next generation
In coming to the University of Iowa, Chun said she felt the expectations from being part of a wrestling program with such a strong legacy. But she didn't want to put the pressure of winning on her team — they already felt it wearing the Tiger Hawk on their uniforms.
“I put it on myself to recognize, we are the University of Iowa, and it's important to really just give our best effort. That's all we can ask of anyone,” she said. “I believe in our team and believe we can do great things. I don't say that because I don't want them to feel suffocated by having to.”
“As much as we want to be at the top all the time — and yes, she's very competitive, we all are — but we want to make sure things are done in the right ways, and she has great patience and intuition,” said Tonya Verbeek, assistant coach.
Verbeek said Chun is very focused on the needs of her athletes and willing to listen to other coaches' ideas on how to make things better for them.
“She's very compassionate and fierce at the same time,” Verbeek said. “She has high standards of this program and wants every student-athlete to achieve their best, on an individual basis and as a team.”
The team did accomplish great things their inaugural year, including winning the team national championship and having six individual national champions. Several of the wrestlers will be vying for a spot on this year's Olympic wrestling team, something their coaches can help them prepare for mentally as both Chun and Verbeek (Canada) have been in their shoes.
“I love that Coach Chun likes to know us on a personal level and not just as athletes,” said Ella Schmit, a sophomore from Bettendorf. “I think she is a good role model for women in sports, and I appreciate that I get to wrestle for her.”
‘Protecting their joy’
Chun said that if you were to walk into the men's wrestling practice versus her practice, it's going to look very different.
“You definitely have to keep it fun, because they will burn out more quickly,” Chun said. “Men and women are different. What drives them and what motivates women is going to feel different than men. I think with women it's protecting their joy.”
Hawkeyes women’s wrestling head coach Clarissa Chun walks her wrestlers through a series of drills during wrestling practice on Thursday, Oct. 13, 2022, at the Dan Gable Wrestling Complex inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City, Iowa. (Geoff Stellfox/The Gazette)
Iowa women’s wrestling head coach Clarissa Chun answers reporters’ questions during the Hawkeyes women’s wrestling media day on Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2023, at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City, Iowa. (Geoff Stellfox/The Gazette)
Iowa women’s wrestling head coach Clarissa Chun cheers after Iowa’s Ava Bayless won against Life University’s Diana Gonzalez in a 109 pound match during Iowa duals at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City, Iowa on Sunday, Jan. 21, 2024. (Savannah Blake/The Gazette)
Hawkeyes women’s wrestling head coach Clarissa Chun gives instructions to wrestlers during practice on Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2023, at the Carver-Hawkeye Arena wrestling room in Iowa City, Iowa. The Ukrainian women’s national wrestling team took part in a joint practice with the Iowa Hawkeyes women’s wrestling team and the Canadian national team. (Geoff Stellfox/The Gazette)
Chun said she's had to reinvent her coaching style from her time as a national team coach. She needs to factor in the different stressors that her student-athletes might be dealing with, whether it’s their first time away from home, helping freshmen figure out time management skills, or the difficulty of balancing classwork, practices and social time.
“I've learned, you've got to take a step back a little bit. It is a different age group, different development stage,” she said. And even though a lot of her wrestlers are highly driven and want to reach the Olympic and world levels, “I can't get ahead of that because they're still a full-time student, and there's all these other factors that national athletes don't have to worry about.”
“She always emphasizes that you're a student first and then an athlete,” Verbeek said.
Life lessons
Wrestling has taught Chun many important life lessons that she is passing on to her wrestlers, including discipline and using adversity to grow and learn about yourself.
“I can relate that to any combat sport, whether it's judo or wrestling. In life, there's times that are going to knock you down or knock you back, take you off your feet, so to speak. How are you going to get yourself back up and take those next steps forward?” she said.
Verbeek said Chun not only shares these lessons with the team but models them as well.
“Coach Chun is definitely sharing and showing in the way she does business. She's an active person, she eats well, she emphasizes sleep,” Verbeek said. “All those things that help create that winning mindset.”
“Wrestling practices challenge you every time you step on the mat, and I think that you can relate that to life lessons and challenges that you face when going throughout life,” Schmit said. “Giving up is never an option, and we always find a way through.”
Chun knows that college is a transitional time in her wrestlers' lives, and hopes they take away the lessons of the team's mission of integrity and character and how to be there for others.
“And hopefully they take away lifelong relationships and friendships, and wherever they go they can find themselves back together and reunited,” Chun said.
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