Every once in awhile, Melissa Myers will grab people and throw them around.
“It’s a great stress reliever,” says Myers, a University of Iowa sophomore, who can do that sort of thing because she's also an internationally ranked judo athlete. Now 19, Myers has been participating in judo since the age of 4 and has become so accomplished that she’ll represent the United States at the World Judo Championships in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, in October.
Myers took up the sport as a child after watching her brothers compete and has participated ever since. In fact, one of the reasons she chose to enroll at the UI is because the university has a judo club that would allow her to continue training while a student.
“If I didn’t have judo in my life, I’d go crazy,” says Myers, a health and human physiology major who plans to pursue a career as a physical therapist. “It’s like I get cabin fever if I go too long without it.”
A second-degree black belt, Myers finished first at the USA Judo Youth Scholastics National Championships in Dallas in April. That qualified her for the worlds, where she’ll compete at the junior level with others age 19 and below. She’s competed at international events before in Belgium and Brazil; this is her first time at an event as large as the world championships.
Art Durnev, faculty adviser to the club and associate professor of finance in the Tippie College of Business, has been participating in judo for three years. While he considers himself one of Myers’ biggest cheerleaders, supporters, and fundraisers, there’s not much he can show her on the mat.
“She coaches me more than I can coach her,” he says. “She’s really good, especially at showing me how to throw.”
Paul Bly, a judo club organizer and groundskeeper at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, says Myers’ competition style is quietly aggressive; she's a strong technical competitor with great skills and the mental fortitude to win.
“At first she doesn’t look terribly aggressive, but then she makes a move and you think you’ve opened a can of worms,” says Bly, who’s been practicing judo for more than 30 years. “She can be mean, and you have to be mean sometimes, but otherwise, she’s such a good-natured person who really likes to help other people out and coach and pass on everything she’s learned."
Myers is also raising money to allay the costs of traveling to and staying in Abu Dhabi for the competition because she has to pay her own expenses for the trip. She’s started a page on Go Fund Me for anyone to donate; contributions can be made at http://www.gofundme.com/3kkc2sv8.
