Olympic gold medalist talks decision to make leap to WWE: 'My calling from God'

Tyra Mae Steele talks to Fox News Digital about getting a chance to perform with WWE after winning the "WWE LFG" competition.

Tyra Mae Steele is poised to become a rising star on the WWE NXT roster as soon as she steps into the ring on the brand following her "WWE Legends and Future Greats" ("WWE LFG") victory.

For Steele, pro wrestling was not always in the cards.

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Tyra Mae Steele won the women's portion of "WWE LFG." (WWE)

Anyone who watched the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 may know Steele as Tamyra Mensah-Stock. She won the gold medal in the women’s 68-kilogram freestyle competition, becoming the first female African American and first Black female wrestler to win Olympic gold. 

She became a viral sensation during the Summer Olympics.

However, she told Fox News Digital in a recent interview that the drive to stay on the wrestling mountain top began to wither away and that freestyle wrestling was becoming more of a chore.

"I’m a natural athlete. God gave me a natural ability to just crush people and I love doing it and I enjoy doing it. When I won the Olympics, I had a lot of pleasure in it, but it was during COVID when nobody was around, and it was very, very unfortunate that there wasn’t anybody in the crowd," she said. "I wrestled for another two years and I didn’t have much love for it.

"Every time I would wrestle somebody, it was easy overseas. And what I love is putting in hard work and having somebody combat me and just having that fight. That what brings me joy and pleasure – I don’t know why, I’m sadistic, but whatever you want to call it, it’s the fighter in me."

Tamyra Mensah-Stock of Team United States celebrates defeating Blessing Oborududu of Team Nigeria