Wrestler

Kyla Bremner is Australia’s top-ranking female wrestler and is the first woman to represent Australia in wrestling at an Olympic Games.

Amazingly, in addition to the intense training and dedication that has taken Ms Bremner to the Beijing Olympics she has also found time to complete a medical degree at University of Sydney and become a doctor.

Ms Bremner was inspired to try the sport after watching a women’s national competition match while she was studying at university in Canada at age 17.

“After [the comeptition] they announced they were looking for more women to compete and so I knocked on the coach’s door and said that I’d like to try wrestling,” Ms Bremner said.

“I really like the physicality and the fact it’s a weight class sport. I’m quite small, 48 kg and 158 cms, which is too small for basketball or volleyball,” she said.

“People always say, ‘I expected you to be bigger,’ just because I’m a wrestler. I got a scholarship once and all the clothes they gave me were extra large.”

“I started competing for Australia in 2001 and it took a while to break onto the international scene. I didn’t manage to qualify for the last Olympics, which was the first time there was woman wrestling.

“This time round the International [Wrestling] Federation allocated seven places to Oceania champions, which I was. So, out of 18 champions seven got to go and four of them are Australians.

Ms Bremner worked as a resident at Bankstown Hospital in greater western Sydney last year but turned down a contract to perform locum work across various hospitals to accommodate her training schedule.

“I usually train twice a day. In the mornings its running or gym work and in the evenings I’m on the mat. As there aren’t many other female wrestlers I usually have to practice with men.”

In the run up to the Beijing Olympics Ms Bremner spent time in Germany wrestling German and Canadian women.

“The Japanese team are the best. They have a wide range of weight classes and out of four women they’ve got three world champions. In my weight class [48kg] it’s the Ukrainians.”

Ms Bremner has suffered a few sprained ankles and neck and back injuries but in the run up to Beijing, it was her eyes that received special attention.

“I wear contact lenses and Johnson & Johnson have provided me with a year’s supply, which is great, they’re also daily, which is good as you can get poked in the eye while you are wrestling and they fall out and you don’t really want to put the dirty one back in.”

Johnson& Johnson also assisted Ms Bremner’s parents, who are both retired, to get to the games to cheer her on.

“My dream result is a gold medal but a lot depends on who you draw on your first match. If you draw the world champion then you may get knocked out in your first round, so I’m just concentrating on my first match and then I’ll take it from there.”

Unfortunately, the 31-year-old was defeated on points by Korea’s Hyung-Joo Kim in the first round.