Tricia is married to Townsend Saunders, the 1996 Olympic freestyle wrestling silver medalist. Criteria include wrestling accomplishments, scholastic achievement, and community service. The award honors the most outstanding high school seniors in women's wrestling. Saunders is the namesake of the Tricia Saunders High School Excellence Award, given by the National Wrestling Hall of Fame. Women's Olympic Wrestling Team at the 2004 Summer Games in Athens. Saunders became one of the first coaches of the U.S. In 2011, she was inducted into the United World Wrestling Hall of Fame. In 2006, Saunders became the first woman to be inducted as a Distinguished Member of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.
She won the silver medal at the 1993 World Championship, and three more Gold medals at the 1996, 1998, and 1999 Worlds, the most World titles of any American woman. Tricia Saunders won the 1992 World Wrestling Championships in Villerbanne, France, competing at 103.5 lbs, the first American woman to win a World title. She later turned to freestyle wrestling, this time wrestling women internationally, after receiving her undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin, ten years later. She retired wrestling boys in folkstyle wrestling at age 12, compiling a record of 181-23. Saunders appeared as a featured guest on a 1975 episode of the syndicated version of To Tell The Truth. By the time she reached the "Regional Nationals", she was a force to be reckoned with in the 50-pound weight class. In her first tournament, at nine years old, she won seven of her nine matches, all against boys.
Her father asked if she wanted to wrestle and she replied with a yes. Tricia then seven, announced she was bored with watching. As a child, she would accompany her brothers to practice. Saunders's grandfather was an All-American wrestler at the University of Michigan in 1930 her father, and her older brother, Jamie, were also grapplers.