Katie Gomez of Birmingham High wins freestyle wrestling world championship

Katie Gomez, one of the City Section’s top female wrestlers from Lake Balboa Birmingham, will have quite a story to tell when friends and teachers ask, “What did you do on your summer vacation?�

Gomez won the U16 Cadet freestyle world championship for 53 kilos (116.8 pounds) by defeating her Russian opponent 10-0 on Friday in Budapest, Hungary. She earlier scored victories over opponents from Hungary, India and Turkey.

“It was an amazing experience,� Gomez said by phone Friday night. She’s scheduled to board a flight home in the morning.

Gomez, 17, started wrestling when she was 10, following an older brother into the sport. Birmingham wrestling coach Jimmy Mederios said competing for a world championship is something for which she has been training the last seven years.

“She’s really explosive and fast,� Mederios said of the two-time City individual champion. “She has a lot of offensive weapons. She can do a multitude of moves.�

Gomez hasn’t attended class at Birmingham since March 2020. There were no individual championships in City Section wrestling because of COVID-19 restrictions. Gomez should receive a hero’s welcome when students return to campus next month.

Gomez said all summer, “I trained. That’s all I’ve been doing.�

Asked what she’ll tell classmates about summer vacation, Mederios said: “I think she’ll come back and say, ‘I’m a world champion.’�