{{Short description|American freestyle wrestler (born 1979)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=October 2024}} {{Infobox sportsperson | image = | imagesize = | caption = | nationality = | sport = Freestyle wrestling |disability = |disability_class = | event = | club = | coach = | birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1979|6|11}} | birth_place = Manteca, California, United States | death_date = | death_place = | retired= | height = | weight = | pb = | medaltemplates = {{MedalSport | Women's freestyle wrestling }} {{MedalCountry | the {{USA}} }} {{MedalCompetition | Olympic Games }} center|80px {{MedalBronze | 2004 Athens | 48 kg }} {{MedalCompetition | World Championships }} {{MedalSilver | 2000 Sofia | 51 kg }} {{MedalSilver | 2003 New York | 48 kg }} {{MedalBronze | 2006 Guangzhou | 51 kg }} {{MedalCompetition | World Cup }} {{MedalGold | 2003 Tokyo | 51 kg }} {{MedalGold | 2007 Krasnoyarsk | 51 kg }} {{MedalCompetition | Pan American Games }} {{MedalGold | 2003 Santo Domingo | 48 kg }} }}
'''Patricia Noriko Miranda''' (born June 11, 1979) is a former American collegiate wrestler. She became the first American woman in Olympic history to receive a medal in woman's Olympic wrestling, winning the bronze at the 2004 Summer Olympics in the 48 kg or 106 lb weight class.
As the daughter of political refugees from Brazil, Miranda began her wrestling career at age eleven by becoming the first female to wrestle at Redwood Middle School and Saratoga High School. Her father initially opposed her wrestling and once threatened to sue her high school for allowing his daughter to wrestle on the boys' team. He eventually allowed her to wrestle as long as she maintained a 4.0 grade point average.
She continued wrestling at Stanford University and eventually earned a spot on the all-male NCAA Division 1 roster as a 125-pound starter. During her senior year, Miranda became only the second woman in NCAA history to beat a male opponent in competition and the first in more than a decade to do so at the time. In female competition, Miranda has had strong success including two World Championship silver medals and an Olympic bronze medal.
Miranda earned a bachelor's degree in Economics and a Master’s in International Policy Studies from Stanford University. In 2005, she won a highly competitive The Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans to help support her graduate studies in law. In 2007, she received her Juris Doctor from Yale Law School. Her coach and husband, Levi Weikel-Magden, is also a law school graduate, earning his degree at the University of Virginia. She is currently a partner at Miranda, Magden & Miranda LLP.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://mirandalawgroup.com/ |title=The Law Offices of Miranda, Magden & Miranda, LLP |access-date=2018-10-14}}</ref>
==Career Highlights and Honors== '''Olympic Games'''<br /> Bronze Medal – Freestyle – 48 kg 2004 – Athens, Greece<br /> '''World Championships'''<br /> Bronze Medal – Freestyle – 51 kg 2006 – China<br /> Silver Medal – Freestyle – 48 kg 2003 – New York, NY, United States<br /> Silver Medal – Freestyle – 51 kg 2000 – Sofia, Bulgaria<br /> '''World Cup Championships'''<br /> Gold Medal – Freestyle – 51 kg 2007 – Krasnoyarsk, Russia<br /> Gold Medal – Freestyle – 51 kg 2003<br /> (''Named Most Outstanding Wrestler'', 2003)<br /> '''Pan American Games'''<br /> Gold Medal – Freestyle – 48 kg 2003 – Santa Domingo, Dominican Republic
===Honors=== Miranda was inducted as a Distinguished Member of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2023
==References== <references />
==External links== * {{sports links}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Miranda, Patricia}} Category:1979 births Category:Living people Category:American female sport wrestlers Category:Wrestlers at the 2004 Summer Olympics Category:Sportspeople from Manteca, California Category:Stanford Cardinal wrestlers Category:World Wrestling Championships medalists Category:Medalists at the 2004 Summer Olympics Category:Olympic bronze medalists for the United States in wrestling Category:Wrestlers at the 2003 Pan American Games Category:Medalists at the 2003 Pan American Games Category:Pan American Games gold medalists for the United States in wrestling Category:21st-century American sportswomen Category:Paul & Daisy Soros Fellows Category:National Wrestling Hall of Fame inductees Category:American people of Brazilian descent Category:Sportspeople of Brazilian descent
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