VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — When you picture a fighter, you usually picture a middle-aged man. However, Mia Williams from Virginia Beach is a 10-year-old that has something to prove.
"I like to show the boys that girls can do stuff, too," Mia said.
Mia started jiu-jitsu at the age of seven. Now, she is a spry 10-year-old putting her name on the map. She trains at VB Fight House in Virginia Beach
"When I started doing jiu-jitsu, I started to really love it, and then I started doing wrestling, and I fell in love with it too," she smiled as she spoke about her sports.
Mia loves fighting. She said it fulfills her, and her coaches know she is something special.
"It is very rare as a 10-year-old to have that mentality and push, " Corey Williams, VB Fight House's head wrestling coach, said.
Mia will go far in fighting, coaches and her dad say
Coach Mike Holcomb, the owner of VB Fight House, said nothing gets in Mia's way, "[she] destructs a lot of things when she goes out there." He talked about how Mia has the whole package with her mental and physical strength.
"I think she's going to go very far in this sport. She already has," he added.
"Whatever the girl says she's going to do, she goes out and makes it happen," David Hoggard with VB Fight House added.
Mia told 13News Now that being a fighter is part of who she is.
"I think it's just my energy. It just pops out as soon as I shake hands with people on the mat," she said.
She is a beast on the mat, and many people credit that to her mental strength, "My mind usually says to me, keep moving, keep going, never stop," Mia explained.
Her mindset and athleticism come honestly.
"My dad was an NFL player," she said. Her dad, Michael Williams, played football and was a serious competitor, but he said this is no longer about him.
"Everything that I've accomplished in my years of playing football, it's out the window. Because it's her time," Michael said.
Michael Williams is a passionate dad.
"That's what being a parent is. It's not about you. It's not about things you may have missed out on. It's about them and their growth and what they can achieve because anytime they're successful, you're successful," he said.
He continued to gush over Mia, her work ethic, and how he was happy that she found something she loved to do.
When asked if there was anything else he wanted to add, he smiled and said, "Mia is a great child, very nurturing, very kind, but she is an animal on the mat."
13News Now saw that firsthand as she competed at the Field House in Virginia Beach in Jiu-Jitsu. When asked if Mia was nervous, she met the question with a quick "No."
She said that girls come in at a disadvantage in this sport and wrestling because they are girls, which fuels her.
"You can't give them empathy, because I can see them smile, and it makes me feel like I'm getting underestimated," she took a breath and continued her thought. "Now it makes me feel like I have to go even harder to make them not underestimate [me] again."
Each competitor that approached Mia on the mat lost.
"They're raising my hand; I feel like I'm accomplishing a goal every time," she said.
In that case, she's accomplished a lot of goals. She won gold at this competition, but she said this was like practice for her.
Mia racks up medals, has her sights set on the Olympics
Mia's medal collection is large. When we asked about her medals, she only mentioned the big ones.
"I've won the Girl's Folkstyle state title, the Boy's Folkstyle state title, the Girl's Freestyle state title, the Boy's Freestyle state title, and I've won two nationals," she said. "And in jiu-jitsu, I've won two world championships."
She will be going for a three-peat in that championship on July 22 in Florida.
"If you win a bunch of medals, you're going to have targets on your back," Mia said.
She isn't afraid to hit that mat, though. However, she knows winning isn't everything.
"I'm not afraid of failure, because no matter what, I know the people beside me, behind me, and around me, like my family; they're still going to be proud of me no matter what, and they always tell me that," Mia said.
The support behind her is strong. You can see her family and coaches beaming with pride to watch this girl succeed, but this is just the beginning for Mia.
"Going to the Olympics is the goal that I have set for myself in the future," she said.
We asked her what she thinks about when she thinks about the Olympics, "I picture me on the top of that medal stand, feeling happy and feeling like, okay, I accomplished my goal."
And though the Olympics seem far-fetched for most, for Mia, everyone agrees it's more than a possibility.
"I see an olympian. You will see Mia in the Olympics," Coach Holcomb said.
"Wherever she wants to go, whatever she wants to do, Olympics, I'm always going to be behind her," her dad, Michael, said.
Olympics or not, the medals take a back seat to the people watching her succeed.
"When I grow older, I feel like I'm going to be inspiring a lot of girls, and that makes me happy because I feel like a bunch of people should be doing wrestling and jiu-jitsu," Mia said.
We don't have to wait until she is older for her to inspire people. She's doing it even now.
"I'm just ten years old. They don't know what's coming in the future, like what I can be in the future," she said.
Remember the name, Mia Williams.
Mia hopes more girls will start jiu-jitsu or wrestling after seeing her story. Currently, she trains for wrestling at VB FightHouse and jiu-jitsu at Brabo Jiu-Jitsu Academy. If you want to follow Mia along on her journey, check her Instagram.