Spc. Estrella "Star" Dorado Marin, left, was a member of the Army's World Class Athlete Program who competed in freestyle wrestling. Dorado Marin, 21, died Jan. 3, 2024, in Thornton, Colo., following complications from emergency surgery. (Nate Garcia/U.S. Army)
The Army is mourning the unexpected loss of a young soldier-athlete who had her sights set on an Olympic gold medal in freestyle wrestling this summer.
Spc. Estrella “Star” Dorado Marin, 21, died Jan. 3 in Thornton, Colo., of complications from emergency surgery, the Army said in a statement Wednesday.
She had experienced numbness in her upper extremities from blood clots, her family told the Army.
Dorado Marin, whose nickname came from the English translation of her first name, enlisted in the Army in 2020 as a fuel supply specialist and later joined the service’s World Class Athlete Program as a freestyle wrestler.
Dorado Marin and her younger sister, Spc. Adriana Dorado Marin, made world teams in their respective weight classes, Estrella at 117 pounds and Adriana at 121 pounds.
Less than a year apart, the sisters “were two peas in a pod,” said their aunt, Patricia Lopez, according to an Army statement.
Spc. Estrella “Star” Dorado Marin was a member of the Army’s World Class Athlete Program who competed in freestyle wrestling and dreamed of making the Olympic team. Dorado Marin, 21, died Jan. 3, 2024, in Thornton, Colo., following complications from emergency surgery. (Nate Garcia/U.S. Army)
While growing up in Denver, Estrella began wrestling at age 12 and her sister soon followed. Adriana Dorado Marin said in an Army statement that her big sister “never got into trouble, and the dedication with everything she did drove me to be like her.”
The two also were fiercely competitive and often were practice partners.
“Sometimes, we couldn’t practice together because we would go so hard that we would fight,” she said.
Estrella Dorado Marin wanted to qualify for the Olympic team at 116 pounds and win gold in this summer’s Games in Paris, said Sgt. 1st Class Jermaine Hodge, the Army’s women’s freestyle assistant coach.
“There is no doubt she would have made the Olympics,” Dorado Marin’s family said on a GoFundMe page set up to help cover funeral expenses.
She won silver medals at the under-20 Pan-American Championships in 2022 and last year’s Armed Forces Wrestling Championships, and she placed fifth at the U.S. Open in Las Vegas in 2023, according to the Army.
The loss is also devastating for those who competed with her in the Army’s program for world-class athletes in Olympic-sanctioned sports, which is based at Fort Carson, Colo.
“Grief is the price we pay for love,” said Staff Sgt. Jenna Burkert, an Army freestyle wrestler, in a Jan. 7 Facebook post. “My mind can’t understand how a week ago we talked about cupcakes and today she is gone.
“I will never forget you, Star. You made me better.”
Megan Black-Campion, a former Army wrestling teammate of Dorado Marin, said she first met her while working as a recruiter assistant in the Colorado National Guard.
“I can’t think of one time where you weren’t the hardest-working wrestler in the room,” she said. “Star, I can’t think of a more fitting name for you. You put off such a beautiful light, no matter what room you were in.”
Besides Adriana, she is survived by an older sister, Dominique, a grandmother, many aunts, uncles, cousins “and a wrestling community that will be forever impacted by … knowing such a magnificent and truly special individual,” according to the GoFundMe page.
