Burkert is example of expanded women's wrestling opportunities
By Carrie Parker
Stony Brook University
Jenna Burkert was six years old when she picked up a wrestling flier and heard the words that would fuel the rest of her life.
“Jenna, you can’t do that. You’re a girl,” a boy in her class said.
Burkert’s response, then and since, was, Watch me.
The now 24-year-old national champion has been at the vanguard of women breaking into a long-time male-dominated sport, sparking a national conversation about wrestling’s changing face--a transformation that’s necessary if it’s to survive.
“How did we get the right to vote?” asked Burkert, a soldier-athlete in the U.S. Army’s World Class Athlete Program. “We demanded the right to vote. How do we get the right to wrestle? We demand the right to wrestle. It takes some courageous women with leadership abilities who go out there and don’t take crap from people.”
Still, despite the progressive push for gender equality, the women’s wrestling movement has been anything but linear, fraught with obstacles and opposition that hinder attempts to revitalize the mat, putting the oldest form of combat at stake.
“I’m asking college coaches to rethink--why don’t we start adding women’s programs to start solidifying men’s wrestling?,” said Terry Steiner, USA Wrestling’s Women’s National Team Coach. “Because as long as we don’t have a women’s side of the sport, it will always be in jeopardy.”
Wrestling has taken some hard hits recent years, not the least of which was the threat of being nixed starting in the 2020 Olympics. And since 1988, the men’s sport with the greatest net loss of teams is wrestling, according to the NCAA Sports Sponsorship and Participation Rates Report through 2016.
Yet as the sport grapples with its own relevance, women’s wrestling has grown rapidly across the country, up to 13,496 high school girls in 2016 from 6,134 in 2010, while high school boys’ numbers dwindled during the same period.
“It’s just thrilling to see the emergence of women’s wrestling,” said Mike Moyer, executive director of the National Wrestling Coaches Association. “Girl’s wrestling is one of the fastest growing high school sports in America.”
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Stony Brook University
Jenna Burkert was six years old when she picked up a wrestling flier and heard the words that would fuel the rest of her life.
“Jenna, you can’t do that. You’re a girl,” a boy in her class said.
Burkert’s response, then and since, was, Watch me.
The now 24-year-old national champion has been at the vanguard of women breaking into a long-time male-dominated sport, sparking a national conversation about wrestling’s changing face--a transformation that’s necessary if it’s to survive.
“How did we get the right to vote?” asked Burkert, a soldier-athlete in the U.S. Army’s World Class Athlete Program. “We demanded the right to vote. How do we get the right to wrestle? We demand the right to wrestle. It takes some courageous women with leadership abilities who go out there and don’t take crap from people.”
Still, despite the progressive push for gender equality, the women’s wrestling movement has been anything but linear, fraught with obstacles and opposition that hinder attempts to revitalize the mat, putting the oldest form of combat at stake.
“I’m asking college coaches to rethink--why don’t we start adding women’s programs to start solidifying men’s wrestling?,” said Terry Steiner, USA Wrestling’s Women’s National Team Coach. “Because as long as we don’t have a women’s side of the sport, it will always be in jeopardy.”
Wrestling has taken some hard hits recent years, not the least of which was the threat of being nixed starting in the 2020 Olympics. And since 1988, the men’s sport with the greatest net loss of teams is wrestling, according to the NCAA Sports Sponsorship and Participation Rates Report through 2016.
Yet as the sport grapples with its own relevance, women’s wrestling has grown rapidly across the country, up to 13,496 high school girls in 2016 from 6,134 in 2010, while high school boys’ numbers dwindled during the same period.
“It’s just thrilling to see the emergence of women’s wrestling,” said Mike Moyer, executive director of the National Wrestling Coaches Association. “Girl’s wrestling is one of the fastest growing high school sports in America.”
Read Full Story
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