Women's Wrestling History
The following synopsis was republished from the National Wrestling Coaches Association Website. For the full article, please click here.
Youth Wrestling
Independent Clubs: In most communities across America, there are a growing number of wrestling clubs that offer developmental and participation opportunities for young girls. USA Wrestling, the National Governing Body for amateur wrestling, The AAU, NUWAY, and many independent clubs offer developmental/participation opportunities for young girls to wrestle. Over the past 20 years, participation has exploded and now young girls are competing around the nation and in most instances, they are very competitive with the young boys.
State High School Athletic Associations: While there have been isolated instances of young women participating on scholastic wrestling teams around the nation in the 1970s, significant growth occurred around mid 1990s. Initially, women’s scholastic wrestling had a strong foothold in Texas which led to the first interscholastic state wrestling championship for women. Over the past 25 years, California, Oregon, Washington, and Hawaii have also added separate high school state wrestling championships for women. In fact, today, there are 1,600 women’s high school wrestling teams in America and over 8,700 participants. Texas currently has the largest population of high school women’s wrestlers followed by California and Washington. It should also be noted that Texas and Hawaii have state laws that do not allow female wrestlers to compete against male wrestlers. All women who compete under the state high athletic association umbrella compete in folk-style.
Outside Club Wrestling: In addition to women’s wrestling teams housed inside of the academic environment, USA Wrestling, AAU, NUWAY, and many independent clubs offer developmental programs for young women in an outside club structure.
Girls high school and youth wrestling
Back in the early 1990’s, when international wrestling
started to hold World Championships for women, there were only a handful of
girls who wrestled on the high school level, less than 100 athletes. However,
since then, every single year there have been more girls wrestling in high
school than the year before. This annual growth trend has been going on for more
than 20 years.
Initially, the only girls who wrestled in high school were
on the boys wrestling team. That was the only opportunity offered. However,
Hawaii became the first state to provide an official all-girls high school state
championships. This concept has grown to other states, including Texas,
California and Washington. Not surprisingly, these are the states which have the
most girl wrestlers on the high school level. A number of states are considering
proposals for girls high school wrestling. Wrestling is also an official high
school sport for girls in New York City.
In 2012-13, the National Federation of State High School
Associations (NFHS) reported 8,727 girls competing in high school, representing
1,602 programs. This number is not fully accurate, as 17 states do not report
girls in their wrestling statistics. Experts believe there are over 10,000 girls
now wrestling on the high school level.
USA Wrestling has been hosting national freestyle
competitions for girls and young women for many years, starting with the
creation of the FILA Cadet Nationals (15-17 years) in 1996, the FILA Junior
Nationals (17-20 years) in 1998, the University Nationals (college age) in 1998,
the Junior Nationals (high school age) in 2002, the Youth Nationals (elementary
ages) in 2003 and the Cadet Nationals (15-16) in 2011. A Girls Folkstyle
National Championships for high school, middle school and elementary school
divisions, was created in 2008. Competitions for girls are also being expanded
on the local, state and regional levels. Currently, USA Wrestling reports over
5,500 female members covering all ages, mostly in high school and youth
programs, but that could be higher based upon reporting procedures.
History of women’s college wrestling
Women competing in college wrestling was not common until
the last two decades, but there have been a few athletes who were part of their
men’s college teams and also entered international women’s events. A few of the
prominent women who wrestled on their men’s teams included Olympic silver
medalist Sara McMann (Lock Haven), Olympic bronze medalist Patricia Miranda
(Stanford), Olympian Kelsey Campbell (Arizona State), World medalists Jenny Wong
(Lock Haven), Jackie Berube (UW-Lacrosse), Debbie Weiss (Arizona State) and
Afsoon Roshanzamir (UC-Davis), World Team members Erin Tomeo (Lock Haven),
Lauren Wolfe (Cornell), Jenna Pavlik (Lock Haven) and others.
The first varsity women’s wrestling team was created in the
late 1990s at the University of Minnesota-Morris, under its coach Doug Reese.
Some of the pioneer programs which added varsity teams in the early years
included Missouri Valley College, the University of the Cumberlands, Menlo
College, Pacific University and Neosho County CC. Cal-State Bakersfield had a
number of talented women competing in the early years. These teams competed
against each other and also against Canadian women’s college teams, but a main
part of their schedule was participating in USA Wrestling national and
international women’s freestyle events.
In 2002, the International Olympic Committee announced that
women’s freestyle wrestling had been added to the program of the Olympic Games,
with its premier event occurring at the 2004 Summer Olympic Games in Athens,
Greece, with four weight class. This announcement helped in the growth and
promotion of women’s wrestling at all levels, including the college level.
History of women’s college national championships
The first official women’s college national wrestling
championships was held in 2004 at Missouri Valley College, which won the
tournament led by four individual champions. Right from the first event,
the competition was in women’s freestyle wrestling, which is the Olympic style.
The event remained at Missouri Valley College in 2005, then was hosted at the
University of the Cumberlands in 2006 and Pacific University in 2007.
In 2008, the coaches within women’s college wrestling came
together to form the Women’s Collegiate Wrestling Association (WCWA). The group
created a set of bylaws, instituted eligibility and recruiting rules, and
elected leaders for the organization. The WCWA ultimately determined the
official women’s college season to be in the fall, with a national championships
set for late January.
The first WCWA Women’s College Nationals was hosted at
Oklahoma City University in 2008 and continues to this day. Other colleges which
have hosted the WCWA Nationals have been Missouri Valley College, Menlo College
and King College. The 2014 WCWA Nationals is scheduled for Missouri Baptist
University.
In the 10 years of women’s college tournaments, only four
colleges have won a women’s college national team title: Oklahoma City
University with four, the University of the Cumberlands with three, Missouri
Valley College with two and Simon Fraser University with one.
There has never been a four-time women’s college national
champion, but there have been six three-time national champions: Sara Fulp-Allen
(Menlo), Alaina Berube (Univ. of the Cumberlands), Michaela Hutchison (Oklahoma
City), Brittany Delgado (Oklahoma City), Helen Maroulis (Missouri Baptist and
Simon Fraser) and Victoria Anthony (Simon Fraser). Maroulis and Anthony have
another year of eligibility and could become the first four-timer.
The WCWA has grown to almost 20 programs, with additional
teams expected next year and in the future. Of these teams, five have NCAA
affiliation, with a majority in the NAIA and some teams from the NJCAA.
The National Collegiate Wrestling Association (NCWA), which
provides competition for men’s college clubs and unaffiliated programs, has a
women’s division in folkstyle wrestling which draws some women athletes to their
annual event. However, the programs which have committed to varsity status and
growing teams compete with the WCWA and in freestyle wrestling.
For more history of women’s college nationals (through
2012), visit this link:
http://www.themat.com/section.php?section_id=3&page=showarticle&ArticleID=25948
Organizational outreach
Women’s Collegiate Wrestling Association (WCWA):
There has been very steady growth of collegiate women’s wrestling teams since
2005. Today, there are 23 intercollegiate teams competing across the
nation. In 2008, the Women’s Collegiate Wrestling Association (WCWA)
was formed by existing coaches of intercollegiate teams for the purposes of
standardizing rules. This organization has member institutions affiliated
with the NCAA, NAIA, NCWA (college clubs), and junior colleges. All WCWA
teams have in excess of 30 women on the roster. Their rules are very
similar to the NCAA/NAIA rules. The WCWA will offer a national
championship for intercollegiate women’s teams each year until the NCAA,
NAIA, and NJCAA have enough member institutions to sponsor a national
championship. All teams in these WCWA events compete in Free-Style
(international style). View
by-laws
National Wrestling Coaches Association (NWCA):
The NWCA sponsors a National Dual Meet Championship for all intercollegiate
women’s wrestling teams each year. The WCWA selects the teams that
participate and all rules fall under the WCWA governing body. Click here
for a link to the NWCA National Duals: http://www.nwcaonline.com/NWCAWebSite/Events/nwcanationalduals.aspx
National Collegiate Wrestling Association (NCWA):
The NCWA offers an opportunity for women’s college club teams to compete in a
regular season league and post season national championship. The teams in
this governing body compete in Folk-Style. For more information on
policies, click here: http://www.ncwwa.net/teams.
For more information on where to wrestle in college, click
here: http://www.nwcaonline.com/nwcawebsite/womenswrestling/womensfacts.aspx
History of international freestyle wrestling
The first recognized World Championships in women’s
freestyle wrestling was held in 1987 in Lorenskog, Norway. The United States did
not enter a team, which featured some European nations and Japan. In 1989, the
international wrestling federation FILA added the women’s division alongside the
men at the World Wrestling Championships in Martigny, Switzerland, which brought
major attention to the event. The United States entered that event and has
participated in every World Championships ever since.
FILA held annual Women’s World Championships every year,
including Olympic years, until 2004, when women’s wrestling had its debut at the
Olympic Games. The number of women’s weight classes have changed over the years,
starting with nine, dropping to six, then moving to seven, which is the current
number of weights.
However, in 2008, FILA also decided to host a World
Championships for women shortly after the Olympic Games in the seven World
Championships weight classes, since the Olympic Games only provided four weight
classes. In 2012, FILA also held the World Championships after the Olympics in
the seven weights.
Women’s wrestling made its Olympic debut at the 2004
Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, and was contested in the 2008 Olympics in
Beijing, China and in the 2012 Olympic Games in London, England. It has been
announced that the women’s wrestling competition will increase to six weight
classes at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Japan has been the
dominant nation in women’s wrestling at the Olympic Games, with 11 medals of the
available 12 opportunities, including seven Olympic champions. Two Japanese
women have won three Olympic gold medals, Saori Yoshida (55 kg) and Kaori Icho
(63 kg). Both athletes continue to compete.
At the World Championships, Japan has won 18 of the 25
World Team titles. The only other nations to win World titles were Russia (1995,
1998), China (2001, 2012), Azerbaijan (2009), the United States (1999) and
France (1987). Likewise, Japan has also won the most individual World gold
medals and World medals in women’s wrestling.
The United States has been a power in women’s freestyle
wrestling since it was added to international wrestling. At the Olympic Games,
Team USA has won four Olympic medals (one silver and three bronze). The Olympic
medalists for the USA are: Sara McMann (2004-silver at 63 kg), Patricia Miranda
(2004-bronze at 48 kg), Randi Miller (2008-bronze at 63 kg) and Clarissa Chun
(2012-bronze at 48 kg).
At the World Championships, the United States was a World
Team champion in 1999, placed second in 2003 (when it hosted the event in New
York) and has been third in the world five times (1996, 1997, 1998, 2005, 2013).
At the World Championships, seven U.S. women have won a total of 11 World gold
medals, and 61 total World medals. World Champions for the United States include
four-time champion Tricia Saunders, two-time champion Kristie Davis and one-time
champions Sandra Bacher, Iris Smith, Clarissa Chun, Elena Pirozhkova and Adeline
Gray.
In addition to the Senior World Championships, the
international wrestling federation FILA hosts World Championships for women at
the Cadet (15-17 year old) and Junior (17-20 year old) levels. FISU, the
organization which runs the World University Games and Championships, includes
women’s wrestling in their events. The United States has been successful at each
of these age-group levels with their women’s program.