Tayla Ford used to hate wrestling.
The 20-year-old Cantabrian had to grapple with her father Pattrick and older brothers when she was younger, but it wasn't just at home where she had to take on the boys.
"The competitions I went to I always lost because I had to wrestle boys. They always cheated so I hated it," Ford said.
That all changed five years ago.
"Since I started winning in about 2008/2009 I actually started to like it and take a bit more interest in it and I realised what I'm actually doing."
Her increased understanding has certainly worked in her favour and after claiming a bronze medal at this month's Commonwealth Wrestling Championships in South Africa, the 59kg competitor shapes as a podium prospect for next year's Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
"That's my short-term goal," Ford said. "[Eventually], I want to go to the Olympics. I did want to go to last year's Olympics but that fell through when I did my knee the year before."
We probably should mention that. In 2011, Ford's left knee was pretty much destroyed when she ruptured her anterior cruciate ligament, tore her medial and lateral cruciate ligaments and the meniscus while playing rugby.
After recovering in time to claim a national title at 63kg last year, she had to have the joint drained at the start of this year but bounced back to win another national title in September. She has also put rugby on the shelf for a while to focus on wrestling.
Ford dropped to 59kg for the Commonwealth championships because her opposition a grade up are too big and her weight cut has seen her pick up some interesting guesses around what she does in the sporting arena.
The former Avonside Girls' High School student, who still trains alongside her father and brother Alex Rangi, used to be mistaken for a rower.
"Now they think that I do bodybuilding," she said with a laugh. "I don't mind being called a bodybuilder."
It's that powerful physique and a dominant approach that has national coach Mark Grayling excited about Ford's potential as they eye Glasgow and the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
At the recent Commonwealth championships, Ford beat eventual gold-medallist Aminat Adeniyi of Nigeria, although a loss to India's Geeta Phogat, who claimed silver, bumped Ford down the rankings.
"That's the best result for quite a while," Grayling said of Ford's performance. "Not so much the placing but just who she beat and the way she beat them. She beat the gold medallist, the Nigerian Adeniyi, the South African, Norma Gordon, and the No 2 Indian."
Ford's attitude to her match-ups gives an indication of what makes her successful.
"I'm really strong mentally and I just get selfish and self-involved and it's all about myself when it comes to competition. I don't really listen to anyone, I don't go out there just to wrestle, I go out there to do what I want to do. I go out there to dominate, to make it my match, not theirs. I don't try to follow them."
Ford was part of a nine-strong New Zealand team that competed in South Africa. Other notable Kiwi results in the men's freestyle section included Marcus Carney finishing fourth in the 120kg division, while 96kg contender Samuel Belkin came fifth and Craig Miller claimed sixth in the 66kg class.
New Zealand's next major tournament will be the Oceania Championships in American Samoa in March where a top-two finish should help individual competitors secure a berth at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
- By Daniel Richardson of APNZ
