Clarissa Chun nearly had the twilight and perhaps the peak of her wrestling career whisked away.

But now, after working as a team member last year in the successful effort to keep the sport in the Olympics, the 2012 freestyle bronze medalist who turns 33 this summer is back to the individual grind, plodding away for one more shot at the gold in Rio.

This weekend, that takes the Roosevelt High product to Madison, Wis., site of the U.S World Team Trials.

"I expect to win this," Chun said in a phone interview Tuesday from Missouri, where she is training.

Allene Somera of Kailua is also among the qualifiers in the 48 kilogram (105.5 pounds) weight class.

Chun was third last month at the U.S. Open, where a lapse in the final seconds against Victoria Anthony cost her a shot at the gold, which was won by Alyssa Lampe.

She’s not using coming back from a second torn labrum surgery as an excuse.

"I felt great, just lost focus," she said. "I was winning the semifinals match, but with 11 seconds left I got thrown."

Chun feels she has the right coach, Sammie Henson, for this stage of her career.

"He was an Olympics silver medalist and won a Worlds bronze at age 36. The style is work smarter, not harder mentality as far as training. A completely different system than I’m used to," Chun said. "For me, I feel like when you’re younger you grind a two, two-and-a-half hour hard practice. Now I feel like it’s still a grind, but shorter. Work harder faster and get it done."

She joked about "having good timing" with her injuries, since they’ve come after the Olympics. The latest came in January of 2013 when she was working a clinic in California and a boy who outweighed her by 35 pounds challenged her to grapple.

"I have a hard time saying no. But I shouldn’t have put myself in that position," she said. "The forced break was bittersweet."

That’s because she got to rehab at home in Hawaii instead of training and competing on the mainland. It also gave her time to be on the U.S. committee that helped wrestling keep its spot in the Olympics when it looked as if the International Olympic Committee had decided to dump it.

"I felt lucky that I was able to be a part of that," she said. "It was everybody, the whole wrestling community. Even people who weren’t wrestlers showed their support.

"We made a strong case of why wrestling should stay in the Olympics. There’s a lot of diversity in the sport, with over 150 countries competing in it, the national sport for many."

One of the results of the appeal is two more Olympic weight classes for women in freestyle, bringing the total to six in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.

She expects to be there again, probably a final shot for gold. For now, the goals are twofold: compete, and stay healthy. She’s had six surgical procedures over the years and another setback might do what the IOC couldn’t — end her career prematurely.

"If it’s not shoulders, it’s knees," she said. "But I feel good. I feel ready to go this weekend."

Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com or 529-4783. Read his blog at staradvertiser.com/quickreads.