Former Iowa Hawkeye national champion Terry Steiner has been named as a Distinguished Member to the National Wrestling Hall of Fame Class of 2025.
Steiner is the 18th wrestler from the University of Iowa to be inducted as a Distinguished Member of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.
The Class of 2025 will be honored and inducted during the 48th Honors Weekend on June 6 and 7, 2025 in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
From USA Wrestling on TheMat.com:
Terry Steiner has been the United States Women’s National Coach since 2002. In six Olympics, he has coached four gold medalists, three silver medalists and six bronze medalists. In 17 World Championships, Steiner has coached 16 gold medalists, 17 silver medalists and 29 bronze medalists. He has coached five of the six women inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame as Distinguished Members: Clarissa Chun (2022), Kristie Davis (2018), Sara McMann (2022), Patricia Miranda (2023) and Toccara Montgomery (2024).
At the 2024 Paris Olympics, the U.S. had two gold medalists in the same year for the first time, and doubled the career Olympic gold medals for U.S. women’s wrestling from two to four. The U.S. won four total medals in 2024 with gold medalists Amit Elor and Sarah Hildebrandt, silver medalist Kennedy Blades and bronze medalist Helen Maroulis. It tied the record for most medals at an Olympics set in 2020 with gold medalist Tamyra Mensah Stock, silver medalist Adeline Gray and bronze medalists Hildebrandt and Maroulis.
Steiner coached the American women to a tie for first place at the 2003 World Championships with seven medals, setting the record for most medals won by a U.S. Senior Women’s World Team. The record for most medals was tied in 2021, 2022 and 2023. In 2022 it included three gold medals, won by Elor, Dominique Parrish and Mensah Stock, which tied the record for most gold medals won by the U.S. women in a World Championship, set in 2019 when Gray, Mensah Stock and Jacarra Winchester stood atop the podium. He has also coached the U.S. women’s team to four runner-up finishes and seven third-place finishes at the World Championships.
Before joining USA Wrestling, Steiner was an assistant coach at Oregon State University and the University of Wisconsin. He was a national champion and the Outstanding Wrestler at the 1993 NCAA Division I Championships and a three-time All-American for the University of Iowa. Steiner was a two-time North Dakota state champion and three-time finalist who helped Century High School in Bismarck, North Dakota, win back-to-back state team titles. Steiner had a career prep record of 128-14, including 69 consecutive victories.
I have followed Steiner’s career since he showed up with his twin brother Troy on campus from Bismarck, North Dakota as a member of the Iowa Wrestling Recruiting Class of 1988.
The Steiner brothers are nothing short of legendary for their work ethic and conditioning even by Iowa Wrestling standards.
I have never witnessed a more dramatic final seconds of a match than when Steiner scored a takedown with time running out over Troy Sunderland of Penn State to win the 150 lbs. NCAA national title at Nationals in Ames, Iowa in 1993. Great memory.
I have followed his career as a coach especially as the United States Women’s National Coach since 2002. Our Women’s program has been outstanding in international competition with Steiner as the head coach.
It is a great source of pride to have a former Hawk like Steiner leading us against the world with such great success.
Congratulations to Iowa Hawkeye Terry Steiner for this much deserved and prestigious honor.
It is great to be an Iowa Wrestling fan.
Go Hawks!
