Gardena Wrestler Is a Triple Threat : Jan Trussell Once Beat Drugs, Now Seeks Judo, Freestyle, <i> Sombo </i> Titles

Inspiration can come from a variety of sources, and two weeks ago Jan Trussell found it in aerobics.

“There’s nothing a woman wrestler or judo player hates to watch more than aerobics,” said John Ross, Trussell’s husband and trainer. “When Jan was on the mat and she saw this woman jumping around and doing aerobics in another part of the gym, it fired her up.”

Trussell, who thrives on combat, holds wrestling in high esteem but has little respect for aerobics. After eyeballing an aerobics dancer, she tightly braided her waist-length blond hair and promptly defeated Asia DeDeweese in the finals (116 pounds) of the first U.S. international women’s freestyle wrestling tournament at San Francisco.

DeDeweese, a 17-year-old Oregonian who was undefeated in women’s competition and 16-1 against men in her weight class, had been the top U.S. wrestler until Trussell overpowered her, 9-4, to qualify for the World Championships in Switzerland in August.

“I’m usually pretty modest, but I could’ve beaten anyone at the tournament,” Trussell said. “Most of these girls are just a flash in the pan. I’ve been doing this for 16 years. I’ve got experience they can’t beat.”

Although Trussell had not wrestled freestyle on an international level since 1983, the 26-year-old won her second national judo championship last year and was the world champion sombo wrestler in ’83. Sombo, developed by the Russians in the early part of the 20th Century, combines judo, freestyle wrestling and Greco-Roman wrestling.

Trussell and Ross also run the L.A. Judo Center in Gardena, where she is an instructor and is training for the 1992 Olympics.

In the 1988 Olympic judo trials, Trussell competed with a broken wrist and did not qualify. Women’s freestyle wrestling is not an Olympic event, but the Olympic committee may add it as soon as the ’92 Games. Trussell says if wrestling becomes an Olympic sport, she will go out for the U.S. team, although judo is her primary sport.

“Judo is the big sport worldwide. It takes more strength and wrestling takes more speed,” Ross said. “But to go out and play any mat sport gives her more confidence, which helps her prepare for the Olympics.”

Trussell’s dexterity on the mat propelled her to the U.S. international freestyle wrestling title despite minimal preparation. She learned of the competition a week before it began when a student informed her that the U.S. was looking for women wrestlers. She spent the next week searching for matches.

“Of course, when you hear wrestling you immediately think, ‘Oh no, they mean professional wrestling,’ but I called and found out it was legitimate,” Trussell said. “Still, my first reaction was professional wrestling, which I think is disgusting and degrading. It totally lacks dignity and takes away from the legitimacy of real wrestling.”

Now that she has qualified for the World Championships, Trussell and Ross are trying to finance the trip to Switzerland. They have virtually ruled out the possibility of corporate sponsorship and will have to rely on private donations in addition to their own funds.

“All the foreign teams have sponsors, but we don’t. The girls from the U.S. are really a ragtag collection,” Trussell said. “I’m willing to work and earn money for this, but women wrestlers definitely face sexism. At the tournament I saw a well-known college wrestling coach, and I asked him if he was recruiting girls. He said to me, ‘Well, maybe for dates.’ That’s typical of the attitude.”

Ross notes: “In the U.S., girls are supposed to be pretty sex objects. They’re supposed to be soft and cute. Boys are taught to fight, to defend themselves, which is silly because we’re not the ones getting attacked or raped.

“Women are, but they’re not supposed to be tough. You can say what you want about equality in this country, but the truth is, it just doesn’t exist.”

Although she and her husband are quick to recite the problems of the female contact-sport athlete, Trussell never sounds angry or disheartened, only ready to do battle. In judo, players are called warriors, and while Trussell’s toughness is most vividly displayed on the mat, her strength and stick-to-itiveness are the result of saving her own life.

At 12 years old, Trussell was abusing drugs. By 14, she was frequently running away from home. By 16, a close friend drowned as Trussell and friends watched from a boat, too high to know what was going on.

Despite her drug problems, Trussell would always return to judo, which she began learning at 10 after her older sister recommended the sport. Then in 1980, Ross, a sixth-degree black belt, came to Trussell’s hometown of Kansas City to teach a clinic. He convinced Trussell that with practice she could become a world-class competitor. Shortly later they married and moved to Oklahoma City.

“No one had ever told me I was good in anything. Everyone was always pointing out the bad,” Trussell recalled. “But the biggest thing came after I won my first tournament. I realized that no drug felt as good as people coming up to me and saying, ‘Wow, you were great. I really admire you.’ People don’t admire you for doing drugs.”

Trussell frequently visits South Bay high schools, providing motivational talks to help teen-agers stay away from drugs.

“Kids have to have something to do with their time. They have to stay occupied and do something that they’re good at,” Trussell said. “People who do drugs are not stupid. Some of them just have too much energy and they need to channel it in a positive way.”

As she helps others find their outlet, her goals are clearly in sight. She wants to win the freestyle wrestling World Championships, repeat as the judo world champion and take back her sombo title.

“I want to be so good that I get my name engraved somewhere,” Trussell says with a wide smile. “If someone has three mat titles, especially if they are Olympic titles, they’d have to be the greatest mat athlete that ever lived. It would be nice if it was a woman.”