MECHANICSBURG, Pa. (AP) — Jodi Mikhail was a sophomore at Cumberland Valley High School in Pennsylvania when a poster for a new girls' wrestling club caught her eye. So Mikhail, who is currently in the fourth grade, tried his hand at this sport.
“I fell in love for the first time,” she said.
Unlike previous generations, she is not alone.
Women's wrestling is one of the fastest growing in the country, sanctioned by a burgeoning number of states and fueled by a movement of medal-winning female wrestlers, parents, and male-dominated coaches and administrators who value women's wrestling. It has become a high school sport. It's necessary and it's an issue of equality.
In the past, girls played on boys' teams and played against boys, but increasingly girls play on girls' teams and play against girls. And now they're wrestling against girls in official, sanctioned tournaments, and their names are on plaques on high school walls and in state record books.
This year, Kentucky, Rhode Island and Pennsylvania held state-sanctioned women's wrestling championships for the first time, and Louisiana became the 45th state to recognize the sport. At the collegiate level, women's wrestling has been designated an “emerging” sport and is scheduled to become a championship-level sport in 2026. the NCAA said.
Fastest growing sport
In Pennsylvania, Penn State men are ranked No. 1, and the state's male and female wrestlers dominated last year's under-16 varsity championships, but as the state's population grows, high school girls The number of wrestlers has almost doubled this year. In 2020, 180 high school teams did not participate.
Hundreds of girls, including Mikhail, competed in Pennsylvania's first sanctioned state tournament. After years of girls having no choice but to wrestle boys or wrestle girls, it was hard to see a handful of the same faces year after year at tournaments sponsored by local wrestling. organization.
Wrestling in state-sanctioned tournaments also provides status for girls who want to compete nationally or wrestle in college.
“I think it's really about this level of making these girls feel seen,” said Brooke Zumas, a former wrestling coach who was active in the campaign to have competitive wrestling sanctioned in Pennsylvania. .
Girls who have been competing for years are welcoming new faces and a big crowd to this year's state-sanctioned championship tournament.
“There's never been a tournament like this before,” said Savannah Witt, a state champion wrestler from Palisades High School in Pennsylvania who has been wrestling for 10 years. “It's great to see. I'm used to seeing the same three girls at tournaments. When I get here, I'm like, 'I don't even know half of these girls.'
According to statistics from the National Federation of State High School Associations, the number of high school girls' teams nationwide has quadrupled in the past 10 years, and the number of girls competing in high school wrestling has quintupled to more than 50,000 as of last year.
Last year alone, it jumped nearly 60%, marking the sport's biggest increase in decades.
Still, there were one-fifth as many female high school wrestlers as male wrestlers last year, the 14th highest number of participants, and the leading athletes in American women's track and field, including track, volleyball, soccer, and basketball. He was lagging behind softball. Also tennis, swimming, golf, lacrosse, cross country, and cheerleading.
With another leap forward, women's wrestling will leapfrog field hockey.
“The world is changing”
Wrestling is kind of a niche sport. The rules are difficult to understand, and there is no mass media to attract attention. For many, it requires a family tradition, a sibling, or a conversion coach. And while wrestlers and coaches describe the sport as daunting due to its extreme physicality, it is unparalleled when it comes to teaching inner strength and discipline. .
Some see the rise of women's wrestling as part of a larger arc for women's sports. The U.S. women's national soccer team captured the nation's attention, and the Big Ten women's basketball tournament was sold out after its conclusion. caitlin clarke She broke the women's NCAA scoring record.
Jackie Paquette, who became the first female executive of the National Wrestling Coaches Association two years ago, said, “The first time women had the opportunity to participate in organized sports was in sports that were considered feminine.'' ” he said. “It was tennis, it was golf, it was swimming. It was considered graceful. Professional wrestling is the opposite in a way, so some people have a hard time accepting women that way. But we… We are now learning that the world is changing.”
Still, boosters insist wrestling is approachable. There are weight classes for every body type, there are few winter sports to compete in, and all a wrestler needs are wrestling shoes.
In 1990, there were just over 100 girls on high school rolls nationwide, and by 2018, only six states had approved it.
In 2016, United States champion wrestler Sally Roberts founded the advocacy organization Wrestle Like a Girl and began conversations with USA Wrestling, the National Wrestling Coaches Association, and the National Wrestling Hall of Fame. These organizations supported women's wrestling despite being male-dominated organizations.
Something else happened that year. American wrestler Helen Maroulis scored. shocking victory She became the first American female wrestler to win a gold medal at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
“The other girls said, 'I want to be her,'” Roberts said.
Changing mindsets and stereotypes
Parents and coaches approached school boards and athletic directors to recruit girls into their schools. James Stettler, a teacher and wrestling coach in the central Dauphin district of Pennsylvania, remembers going out to hand out flyers to parents on back-to-school night.
“Whenever you try to sell them, you think, 'Oh, you look like a family that has a future wrestler in the family.' And they say, 'Oh, no, I have a daughter.' And I say, 'That's great, we have a girls' program,'” said Stettler, a former high school wrestler who has a 13-year-old daughter. , Abby and her two sons wrestle.
Some parents have had a change of heart. Some parents didn't want their daughters to wrestle with boys. Some people didn't want girls to wrestle.
Leah Wright of Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, remembers when her daughter wanted to take up wrestling after watching her brother wrestle. Ms. Wright's husband, who has been a martial artist since she was a child, said no, but a conversation began at home that changed his mind.
“That's definitely changed, with fathers who were wrestling introducing their daughters to the sport and connecting through the sport,” Wright said.
Those who watched the Ultimate Fighting Championship matches saw Sarah McMann and Tatiana Suarez, collegiate wrestlers who have won medals in international competitions, including McMann's silver medal at the 2004 Olympics. There were also people.
“And they look at their daughters and say, 'Oh, you want to wrestle?'” Roberts said.
Some people say they never expected to be sanctioned.
Among them was Serge Bouissou, who recalled the mean things coaches and parents said to his daughter, who was a high school wrestler, before she graduated more than a decade ago.
“I hope people never give in to the fact that girls are more than capable of participating in this sport,” said Buisou, who coached Scituate High School girls wrestlers in Rhode Island's first sanctioned state tournament last month. I guess that's what I was thinking,” he said.
Gary Abbott of USA Wrestling said wrestling is growing rapidly at the youth level and the organization is encouraged by the record number of women's Olympic medals in 2021, a record four. . USA Wrestling said it hopes to see as many female wrestlers as possible one day. Abbott said he also wrestles like the boys.
Maybe in 10 or 20 years, a new generation of mothers who used to wrestle on women's teams in sanctioned tournaments will be teaching their daughters to wrestle.
“It's really good for girls, especially girls who are new to the sport, to help them understand that this is what the sport should be about,” said Oubre Kreiser, a state champion and senior at Easton Area High School in Pennsylvania. Ta. “It's very organized. … I'm glad that it's going to be better for them than it was for us, especially for the generations to come. And that's what I want for them. .”
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AP Sports Writer Cliff Brandt contributed to this report.
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