September 16, 2021 • 33 mins
Double Olympic bronze medal wrestler Sally Roberts founded Wrestle Like A Girl in 2016 to provide opportunities for girls to take up the sport while empowering them to do much more beyond the mat. Given her background enduring a challenging childhood which saw Sally struggling with petty crime she was offered the choice of juvenile detention or find an after school sport. Hence her introduction to wrestling and the start of what was to become an Olympic career and service as a U.S. Army combat veteran. Once she retired from the sport at the age of 36 Sally decided to use her experience and skills to help girls find their way in wrestling and to give them a platform that would empower them in all walks of life. Sally explains how the organization has evolved, the progress they have made to expand the sport, and what their goals are for 2020 and beyond.
Host: Chris Stafford
For more information, links and resources plus conversations from the world of women’s sport including articles, blogs, videos and podcasts visit wispsports.com. WiSP Sports is the World’s First and Only Podcast Network for Women’s Sport with more than 60 hosts, 1300+ episodes across 50 shows and over 7 million downloads. WiSP Sports is on all major podcast players. Follow WiSP Sports on social media @WiSPsports. Contact us at info@wispsports.com.
Host: Chris Stafford
For more information, links and resources plus conversations from the world of women’s sport including articles, blogs, videos and podcasts visit wispsports.com. WiSP Sports is the World’s First and Only Podcast Network for Women’s Sport with more than 60 hosts, 1300+ episodes across 50 shows and over 7 million downloads. WiSP Sports is on all major podcast players. Follow WiSP Sports on social media @WiSPsports. Contact us at info@wispsports.com.
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(00:02):
WISP Sports, the voice of Women'sword. Hello and welcome to season two,
episode one of the Sport in Focusshow here on WISP sports. I'm
Chris Stafford, and you can joinin the conversation anytime by following us on
social media at WHISP sports or bydropping us an email to info at wissports
(00:26):
dot com. This is the showthat dives a little bit deeper into a
sport, so we get to knowa lot more about it and we find
(00:47):
out how we can get involved withthe organization that we're featuring here, Wrestle
Like a Girl. Sally Roberts isa former US Army combat veteran and a
two time World Bronze medalist who startedthe organization in two thousand and sixteen.
They wanted to give opportunities to girlsto get involved in the sport, but
their mission was to empower girls andwomen through the sport of wrestling to become
(01:11):
leaders in life. So their longterm goals are way beyond fighting on the
mat. They believe that girls cando absolutely anything, especially wrestle, and
of course the sport is very accessibleto girls of all ages, and they
want the benefits of the sport toextend way beyond the sport itself, to
help girls and young women learn selfconfidence and resilience and to make healthy life
(01:36):
choices, both physically and mentally.They also teach them to unlock and unleash
their full human potential so that theycan become whoever they want to be,
both on and off the mat.Well, here not just only the ABC
of wrestling, what it involves,what you need to do to start wrestling,
and what the categories are, andthe potential of course within the sport.
(02:00):
And we'll also here about the workof the organization and how itself is
advancing the sport. Sally, Hi, thank you for joining me. Hello,
thank you so much for having me. Well, it's good to have
you on the show because I've beenmeaning to get you here for a long
time now, watching what you've beendoing with wrestle like a girl. Now
(02:20):
you're coming into your fourth year already, that's right. We started in twenty
sixteen and we're coming into our fourthyear and focusing on girls this year is
our motto for twenty twenty. Wedo cover old women and all old girls,
of course, but we wanted toplace particular emphasis on girls because I
don't think in the media do enoughof that generally, So we're going to
(02:45):
play our part this year in increasingexposure for girls in sport. Generally,
tell us a little bit about thebackground to the organization, because the story
is much longer than that, isn'tit. Wrestling as a sport really turned
your life around. From what I'veread, it really did. The sport
of wrestling because of the way thatit's built. It doesn't matter what your
(03:07):
weight class, your body size,your socioeconomic status where you came from.
It allows any person that wants tobe on the wrestling mat to have that
opportunity. My story began because Iwas getting into significant trouble and I was
given an ultimatum by some law authoritiesto say either find an after school activity
or go to juvenile detention. Ineeded an outlet and wrestling provided me that.
(03:30):
So I'm so thankful and I'm sograteful. So, going twenty years
into the future, when it cametime for me to look at what my
path ahead might be, I cameup with the idea that we needed more
advocacy for girls and women in thesport of wrestling, and the idea for
wrestling like a girl got hatched,and there was so much rallying and support
(03:54):
behind it from the female athletes thatit became this very fluid and nimble organization.
We started out doing wrestling camps andclinics, and then from there it
expanded into recognizing that we needed advocacy. We had to start using our voice
and using our platform be able toopen up more doors and opportunities for girls
and women, and by all ofus banning together both men and women stakeholders
(04:18):
alike, it really started to takeon a new life in a new direction.
So here we are four years later, and we're sitting at a completely
different spot and a completely different vantagepoint and when we first started in twenty
sixteen. Yeah, it's fabulous whatyou've done. It really is. And
you've got a tremendously comprehensive website aswell, full of resources and information and
(04:40):
events, and I would imagine thatreally is a go to place for a
lot of girls now once they getto know about your organization. But just
to go back a little bit furtherSally and give us a basic introduction to
wrestling for those who are not familiarwith it. What you said, the
opportunities, there's equal opportunities for girlsto get into the sport. What are
(05:00):
the kind of pre requirements if youwill. I mean, we know what
they offer tennis or for soccer,but what do you need as a girl
to get into wrestling and what arethe categories? The most important thing that
you need to have as a femalegoing into the sport of wrestling is that
you have to have courage, andyou have to have tenacity and grit,
perseverance, all of those leadership skills. It takes nothing else beyond that.
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Then walking onto the wrestling mat.What you need in order to participate is
a wrestling mat, so a softplace to land. You need a partner
so that you can work out andtrain with, and you'll need a coach.
And from there, it's a martialart. It's a combat, so
you're in your stance and you haveto learn how to get into these positions
and roll around. Of course,it's a weight category, so you'll be
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wrestling someone your same weight class,and depending on your age, demographic or
where you're participating, whether it's atthe high school level or with maybe the
international style of wrestling, which isfreestyle, there's going to be a different
weight category. So We do haveinformation on our website so you can determine
where your best fit is. Butessentially it's just coming as authentically as you
(06:12):
are coming and bringing a fight,being courageous and brave, and starting to
learn how to own your space andyour body. So when an opponent pushes,
you need to learn how to pull, and when their opponent pulls,
you need to learn how to pushand use their body movements and their reactions
to be able to get in andscore advantage points. And you do that
by really exposing your opponents back tothe mat or scoring two points from a
(06:34):
takedown or points from a turn byexposing their back past a ninety degree angle.
How many weight categories are there forgirls, that's a great question.
If you're looking at the international stylethat comes from the IOC with our international
federation, which is United World Wrestling, there is ten weight classes during the
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non Olympic years. During the Olympicyears they break down to six weight classes,
so athletes are having to combine.If you're wrestling in the United States
for the collegiate system, there's fourteenweight classes in high school, and if
you're wrestling in the United States forthe cadet or Junior level, which are
age groups for younger athletes. There'sdifferent weight classes as well, so it
(07:20):
really depends on your age and whatumbrella association you're competing under that's going to
determine the weight class opportunities. Now, I would imagine, like any combat
and martial art sports, sally,you would need to have a particular attitude
to this, you know, afighting attitude, right, It wouldn't be
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for every girl. Someone who's youknow, might be more prone to wrestling
and not have an aggressive attitude.How how much of that do you actually
develop in those early stages of teachingsomeone to wrestle, to bring out that
aggression in them and that fighting spirit. I love that you said that,
because there does need to be thatfighting spirit. But then you also have
(08:07):
athlete examples like Helen Marulus. Shestarted wrestling because she was so shy and
so introverted, and she cried allthe time that she needed to do something
that helped build her courage, andthat was a good starting point. And
then you have athletes like myself.When I came into the sport of wrestling,
I already love to fight. Iwas already aggressive, but really the
work that gets done through the coachesand through the team and the culture building
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that you're a part of in thesport is really directing that fight towards the
mat and taking all of that energythat you have as a human, whether
it's anxiety, whether it's anger,aggression. Sometimes we've run into abandonment issues,
and directing all of that fight andbeing able to harness it and control
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it with your head and your heartand your mind, and being able to
keep your head and all of yourwits about you in the midst of challenge
and as you go through your coachit's a journey, and you're never really
going to truly have achieved to thepoint where you say I've made it,
because the true skill in wrestling isknowing that you can be mean and you
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can be aggressive, and that's aslight phase of it, but truly it's
about understanding the technique and keeping yourhead about you and all wits have been
lost. Well. Combat is clearlyyour middle name, I would say,
respectfully, because you were a USArmy combat veteran and as well as being
a medalist, a multi medalist,so you have a particular kind of spirit.
(09:37):
I would say for combat. Butwhen you were getting into trouble as
a child and you had all kindsof options in sport these days, there
so many options, what was itparticularly about wrestling that really floated your boat?
And I thought, you want tohave a go at this because you
were, you know, obviously combatitiveand you could really be That's a great
(10:03):
question. When I had originally beengiven my ultimatum, I did, in
fact try out for the girls sports. I tried out for softball, basketball,
and volleyball. But they're all teamsports, and they were all cut
sports. I didn't know how toplay well with others, so I was
getting cut. I was being toldI was unathletic. So when I looked
at the list of opportunities, wrestling, by the inherent nature of itself,
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we want as many people on theteam as possible. It's a no cut
sport. So that meant as longas I went out for the team and
I didn't quit, that would bemy salvation from not going to juvenile detention
or finding myself in more trouble.So when it came to wrestling, what
I loved about it so much wasthat it didn't matter who you are or
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how you presented, what your bodyclass, what your weight class was,
or your body You have an athletenamed Anthony Robless. He is an NCUBA
champion from Arizona State University and hehas one leg, and so it really
does anybody that wants to be onthe wrestling mat can be on the wrestling
mat. And I just love thatit supported diversity. It's supported inclusion,
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and its supported this sort of bothsisterhood and then you of course have your
brothers that you have, and therethere came a point where it just really
built this co ed family. SoI was able to look at men and
women as equals, and the menthat looked at me, we were able
to see that we were equals.And from that we were able to really
start to really define and refine ourown fighting spirit because we know what our
(11:31):
own right and left limits are,we know what our values are, and
we know how hard we have towork in order to be successful. Did
the sport make you competitive, Sallyor were you already a very competitive child?
Oh gosh, I would say thesport honed my competitiveness. I would
say I was always very competitive,but I was very competitive at everything,
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and now I've learned how to belabored, laser focused and what I want
to compete at. So I reallyuse the sport of wrestling. That was
what I chose, and then nowas the CEO of wrestle like a girl,
I'm very competitive at my wins andlosses. Is when it comes to
the policy and the work that wedo within the organization. Do you still
(12:15):
fight? I started doing muie taie. I really enjoy mue taie. I
really like doing jiu jitsu. Istill go in and I wrestle with the
girls when we do camps and clinics. I think it's a lot of fun
and any opportunity I can get toput my shoes on and go out onto
the mat, I enjoy it.I enjoy it because I've learned how to
get into those combat spaces or thoseathletic spaces, and it actually now relaxes
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my body and it also takes allof my thoughts and it really starts to
streamline them and it helps me thinkin process. But it would take its
toll physically. I would imagine,no matter how good a fight to you
are, you take your knox.It's like in equestrian sport, you're going
to fall off a horse and yeah, in my case too much, but
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you know, you take the knocksright, So I would imagine the injuries
come with it. What sort ofinjuries wrestlers are prone to. The injuries
that are most common with wrestlers.You have shoulder injuries because you're doing a
lot of grabbing, pushing, pulling. There's knee issues that you have acls,
especially when you have athletes that areon their cycle or there they have
(13:24):
a little bit of joint laxity forwhatever reason. Use can see ACL knee
issues. If you look at ourhands, like Judo, we have a
tendency to have jam thumbs, jamfingers. Potential dislocations comes from pulling and
maybe getting your fingers caught. I'vehad a really significant ipoke on accident out.
(13:46):
Yeah. Yeah, So there's injuriesthat come with it, and you
do sort of take your lumps andyour bumps. And one of the beautiful
lessons that I learned from the sportof wrestling is there's a difference between tough,
smart and tough stupid. Tough stupid. As you're injured and you really
need to take time off that youdon't want to, and you just keep
training anyway, and you either continueto injure yourself or you get injured more
(14:09):
aggressively. So I had to reallycome to embrace this notion of tough smart,
which meant the smartest thing for meto do and the toughest thing for
me to do is actually sit outand put ice on my body and go
to sports medicine, take anti inflammatoriesand really recover. And sometimes in sport,
especially if you're a very competitive person, you don't want to take any
time, any moments off the mat, so you just want to push through.
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But that's not always the best thingto do. Now, coaching,
I would imagine, would be keythat you get the right coach and you
get the right start in the sports. Sally give us a sense of what
girls who might be listening should knowabout this, so how to find a
coach and what they need to lookfor and what parents need to look for
to guide them at those early stagesof the sport. I think that getting
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a coach that is the right fitis really important from my perspective. First,
you want to look at the culture. What is the culture that is
in that wrestling room? Are theyreally and you have to make sure that
that culture meshes with you, andit's going to be different depending on where
you train. For me, Ireally liked tough, aggressive coaching. If
I were to look at a collegiatestyle, I really like the idea of
(15:18):
Iowa style where they're really direct andthey're heavy hitting and their intense. I
love that there's some athletes that reallylike more of a Penn State University coaching
style where and that's coached by KailSanderson, where there's a lot of positive
sports psychology. They look at thesport holistically mind, body, spirit.
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So first off, understanding the cultureof the coach and how he implements that
he or she implements that into theroom is really important. Making sure that
when you look at coaching, askingare you background check, do you have
concussion certification? Do you understand what'syour protocol for emergency? What are your
safeguarding protocols? Really coming in andbeing an ad the kit for both yourself
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as the athlete, but then alsomaking it so that your parents are coming
in to advocate as well, askingthem questions like how long do you want
my athlete to practice before she competes. Some coaches think that you can go
and wrestle right away in competitions.But we're finding if you do that younger
and younger ages and you try andsport specialize that you could get athlete burnout.
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So how do they balance that andhow do they keep the sport fund
so that the athletes can get engaged. They're getting their needs met, they're
growing, they're learning, developing.I also encourage athletes and parents to ask
questions to the coaches, and thatis what is their coaching philosophy? Is
it simply to win medals or isit to develop these human beings that you
want to have go on and beproductive citizens and members of society. And
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when you really start to peel backthe young and you realize that being a
coach is complex. So then goingon and saying, can you give me
a little bit more of your background? What's your education, Where did you
get your certifications? How do youknow and where did you learn and what
you're doing. Tell us a littlebit about the structure of a fight.
Then how how often you should fightand competitively over say a month, and
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the length of time these fights typicallytake. When I was between the ages,
my junior high so up until Iwas fifteen, we would have I
was wrestling in junior high, wewould have two or three competitions a week,
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but I also was practicing maybe twohours a day. In my mind
at that time, I thought itwas incredibly challenging practice, and at that
time it absolutely was, but itwasn't near what I had grown into.
When I was in high school,I had about the same competition schedule.
When I got into college, Iactually competed less because it was far more
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aggressive. It was far more intense. I would have more fatigue, So
my competition schedule actually started to readus At the height of my elite athletic
career, when I was wrestling fora team USA, I competed maybe once
every three or four months because itwas really so challenging on my body and
I had to be prepared for itand I really needed to embrace that notion
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of tough, smart. Towards thetail end of my career, I retired
when I was thirty six. Thatmeant that I was competing even less,
maybe three tournaments a year. Sodepending on where the athletes are at in
their sports cycle or their life cycle, it's completely feasible to think I can
go out and wrestle a tournament everyweekend or every two weekends. The caveat
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that I would add is that upuntil the age of twelve thirteen, maybe
going into beingcoming a teenager. Ireally I personally don't encourage too many athletes
to have strong competitions. I thinkit's more fun and it does more to
build the athletic base if you cango in and have fun. And there's
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a term that we like to saycalled gamify where you can play the game
of wrestling and that keeps the interest. You can learn the skills, and
when you start to transition over intoactually competing, it's a little bit more
fluid, and it also reduces theanxiety because it's made you love the sport
and whether you win or lose,it's about the journey and it's about the
process. When it comes to whatare the length of the matches or the
(19:18):
length at abouts, it goes byage groups. So at my most competitive
it was to three minute rounds,so six minutes. As you go to
the younger age groups, it's aminute per round and there'd be two rounds,
sometimes three rounds, depending on yourage group that you're competing in and
where you're competing, So I wouldsay that you would expect to have those
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younger athletes being able to wrestle forabout four minutes. And if they can
do that and they can have funwhile they're doing that, then you're going
to be able to watch them grow, flourish and shine. And what does
it cost to join a club hub? But you have to look for a
club if you're not wrestling in school. It depends on where you live.
(20:04):
You can go. If you're inNew York, there's a phenomenal program called
Beat the Streets New York, andthere's free after school programs if you're a
girl or a boy that wants towrestle. I would say the average cost
of a club prize, it wouldrange anywhere from twenty so many of them
are free, so you should alwaysask if that is an issue, because
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we recognize that there is a lotof athletes that want to wrestle that come
from challenging backgrounds and we don't wantto exclude so many of them do offer
scholarships a reduced costs to participate,But for the most part, I would
say it's anywhere from twenty five dollarsa month to maybe two hundred dollars a
month if you're going to a reallyelite club that has a travel team,
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that really gets invested into its athletesat earlier in earlier ages, and it
seems to be a very accessible sportyou've mentioned through school, through college and
beyond. Then that applies for girlsas well as boys, a very open,
unaccessible sport. How competitive it isthat then, is that a national
(21:06):
structural like school calendar of fighting likethe MC DOUBLEA would have. Is that
does that start like at a youngage for girls in school? We're working
on it. When we started WrestleLike a Girl in twenty sixteen, from
two thousand and two to twenty andsixteen, there was six states in the
US that had a girls sanctioned highschool championship. That meant girls got to
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wrestle another girl for a state title. One of the challenges that I had
with that was that that meant thatthere was thirty thirty plus states that did
not support female wrestling at all.I mean you had states like Mississippi that
didn't even have girls wrestling. Sowe really started to peel back the onion.
We've worked and we've helped to supporttwenty more states. So in total
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now we have twenty states as ofthis year that have a girls high school
state championship. There's thirty more statesthat we're working with policy, legislation,
growing the sport with coaches, education, athlete participation so that we can show
the numbers and that's going to helpwith the female growth opportunities. And then
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we recognized that those high school athletesthey needed a collegiate pipeline. There's an
association called the NAIA and they're forthe most part, smaller, more private
schools, and they've taken the initiativeand they created their own invitational and they're
working towards their championship status. Whenit came to the ncuble A, the
ncuble A, their process to becomean emerging sport status was put back on
(22:40):
to the member institutions. They saidthe member institutions have to submit a bid.
At that point in time, therewas an association that was helping to
support the women's wrestling at the collegiatelevel and it hadn't They needed some support
in getting that done. So thatwas the work that my organization was,
like the girl did. We tookthe bid, we worked on it and
(23:00):
very collaboratively, it got submitted andas of August of last year, twenty
nineteen, the Committee for Women's Athleticshas recommended women's wrestling to become an NC
double A Emerging Sport. We're allworking so hard because we have to show
that pipeline and we're showing it beingimplemented by all the NC double A members
schools and they're being compliance. Andat first of twenty twenty is the soonest
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that the NCUBLEA could announce that women'swrestling has attained NC double Emerging Sport status
and from there, August first,twenty twenty one would be the soonest that
we could have women's wrestling as anuncable A championship sport. This has a
global effect to it because of thestructure that was written, and that was
that we wanted our women's collegiate wrestlingteam to be freestyle. And if you
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were to look at what the menwrestle, their style is folk style,
which is very traditional to America theUnited States, and freestyle it's the global
style wrestled at the Olympics. Thatmeans any girl, any woman across the
globe that can get into a collegein the United States can determine the funding
and how that's going to work,and pass their English proficiency exam and then
(24:14):
be recruited. You can actually cometo the United States and wrestle in a
college it has a women's wrestling programthe international style, So you could be
wrestling for any of those institutions whilestill being able to go back home and
represent your country for the Olympic Games. If you've made that team, that's
fabulous. It really is growing thenexpanding across the country and around the world.
How long can you fight for?You mentioned do you retard as an
(24:38):
elite athlete in your late churches?But what is it typical as an amateur?
Would you be able to fight too? I mean, can you go
into your forties, fifties, sixties. As the level in the caliber of
female athletics continue to increase, we'renoticing that the age gap cap is dropping
lower and lower. Isis respect thatif I was trying to keep up with
(25:00):
the younger athletes now, I wouldjust really have a hard time. So
as I look at it, whatstarted to be the age cap for was
about thirty six to forty. Butnow as the athletes are getting trained younger
and younger and they start building theirskill set from those earlier ages. It's
really magical if they can get abovethe age of thirty, and that's because
(25:22):
they're really in tune with their body. They're supporting recovery, they're really aware
and in tune with nutrition and reallyliving a very healthy lifestyle to embrace a
lifetime and a lifestyle of physical activity. How many women coaches are there in
the sport, Sally, do youhave a sense of that or is that
increasing? We are working on itso incredibly hard. We noticed that that
(25:48):
is going to be a challenge.We don't have enough female coaches. This
is in all aspects of the sport, whether it's at the grassroots, the
high school, the collegiate, oreven the international style. We can look
at Hungary and Diletta is the femalecoach for the Hungarian women's team, and
we have a couple of athletes friendsthat I know that I've gone and taken
(26:10):
positions within their national federation. Alot of Anderson is now at in Norway
and works with Sweden and a coupleother programs, and we don't have enough.
So there is the life cycle ofthe athlete that is aspire You want
to aspire to be an athlete.Then you go to the inspire where you
are in that athlete phase and you'reinspiring all of these generations and yourself as
(26:33):
well. And then when you goto the finale, it's to retire.
And that used to mean that theathletes would walk off into the sunset we
would never see them again. Butthe pushed and the poll has been saying,
you have such a value in sucha skill set. I don't need
for you to retire. I needfor you to stay in the sport and
give back, and I would lovefor you to coach, and we need
for you to coach, but wealso need to in media, in front
(26:55):
of the camera, behind the cameraof course, coaching, administration, and
you name it. Like, weneed to have women in every aspect of
these roles in order to truly growthe sport and the opportunities. And we
really need to get those women tounderstand the language of money and finance,
to get in positions on committees sothat when they're having conversations within federations about
where should the money go, they'reable to say, we want to help
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support female supporting opportunities, whether that'sfor wrestling or any sports. We need
women to take those leadership positions.Well, you've made great strides with your
organization in the three years coming tofour now that you've been in existence,
sally and lots of initiatives, thereare lots of resources. It took a
little bit about what's next on youragenda, what are your prioritists for twenty
(27:40):
twenty and then the long term goals. Our priority for twenty twenty is to
work with five more states to getthem to have a girls high school state
championship. We are really pushing hardwith the advocacy the awareness at the NCAA
level to attain and get the votesthat we need to support the Committee for
(28:02):
Women's Athletics to grant NCAA Emerging Sportsstatus to women's wrestling. We have the
Olympics coming up Tokyo twenty twenty.Women's wrestling is the featured sport of the
Games. The Japanese are the twentyyear reigning World and Olympic team champions,
so it's a huge sport for them. That's going to be the focus of
the Games, and so really makingsure that there's a lot of positive messaging,
(28:26):
positive media promotion, a lot ofeducation and information awareness. And we
have our Capstern event every year thatcelebrates all things women's wrestling, and that
is our annual gala. It happensduring the fall, and this year it's
going to be after the Olympics wherewe get to celebrate all of those all
of the wins that we've had asboth an organization but as a support a
(28:47):
whole across the globe. And thathappens here in Washington, DC, and
we would love everyone to come ifyour schedule allow us. Well, that's
fabulous, and lots of work todo. And you've got a great team
behind you there too, don't youCommittee and advises a lot of initiatives happening.
So this is it a full timejob for you now running the organization?
(29:08):
I think full time definitely underestimates theamount of time I spend, but
yes I do. I run wrestlelike a girl full time, more than
twelve hours a day. But it'sinteresting. I used to think, oh,
as an athlete, what am Igoing to do with all of these
extra hours in my day once I'mnot wrestling? And I've just learned how
(29:29):
to backfill with all of this advocacyand I love doing it, and I've
come to realize that I'm never goingto not be incredibly busy. And I've
also come to realize that as anelite athlete, what our notion of incredibly
busy is is far different than someonethat has not necessarily participated to the same
level, because we've learned how toendure, and at least for me,
(29:52):
I've learned how to endure and ona little bit, I've I've learned how
to suffer, and I've my ownpersonalities that I love to suffer a little
bit and I feel like I earnthings a little bit more when I do.
So, Yeah, I work alot and I'm thankful for it.
All right. Well, finally,Sally, what would your message be to
girls and women who are listening tothis who should find out more? A
(30:14):
good find if they can find outmore, of course on your website,
So tell them, Tell them everybodywhat they really need to know about rest
of lack a Girl and how theycan get involved. Please go to our
website. We have social media Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn. We're
working to really build our community,to build our network. We want as
many people as possible to participate.We have our national camps here in the
(30:37):
United States. If you're in thearea, we would love you to come
participate. We have countries and embassiesthat have asked us to come out,
and we have a robust international calendar, So please look at the schedule and
see if we're coming to a countrynear you, and if we're not,
then let's work out how we canhelp support either your country or your national
governing body and supporting more opportunities.And if anyone out there has ideas of
(31:00):
what we can do or different waysfor us to incorporate more stakeholders to grow
and build capacity, please reach outand give us your ideas. And again
you can find our email at onWrestle Like a Girl and it's info at
Wrestle Like a Girl dot org.Fantastic Sally, Well, thank you so
much for taking the time to comeon the show, and do come back
anytime. If you have any breakingnews that you would like to share with
(31:22):
us, we would love to shareit with our audiences. Likewise, yes,
certainly I will and we would bedelighted to share all good news.
Terrific. Well, thanks for yourtime and the very best of luck with
the organization. All right, thankyou so much. I am an American
judoka competing in the under fifty twokiogram division for the United States that I'm
a proud with the ambassador. Ibelieve women in sports is extremely important.
(31:47):
Teaches young women from a young ageto believe in themselves, to have great
self confidence, and especially this Olympicmovement, you can see great athletes such
as Simone Biles, Kayla Harris,for example, Mary Malloy, which is
our fro, a friend of mine. These are great female role models,
strong women in sports. My socialmedia account is at jug ju Ji Underscore
(32:10):
Angie an Gie and I just wantto thank you so much for listening,
and we'll have links on our shownotes accompanying this episode on the website at
wessports dot com. Just go tothe listen tab on the top there and
drop down the menu to Sport inFocus, and whilst you're there, take
a look around. We have alot more shows here on the network.
(32:31):
There are forty six to choose fromright across the spectrum of women and girls
in sport, and in this yeartwenty twenty, we want to be focusing
more on girls in sports. Soif you have any stories or would like
us to talk to any girls inany sport. Please do drop us a
line to info atwissports dot com.You can also post comments, of course
(32:52):
on our Facebook page or leave amessage there. Just look for with sports
and as there's a sport that weshould be focusing more on, then do
let us know. We would loveto hear from you. And if you
have a moment when you're on iTunes, do drop us a review. It
does help us to go up theratings on iTunes, so let us know
what you think too. With sportspodcasts, we would love to hear from
(33:15):
you. So until the next time, thank you for listening and for helping
us turn up the volume on women'ssports.
WISP Sports, the voice of Women'sword. Hello and welcome to season two,
episode one of the Sport in Focusshow here on WISP sports. I'm
Chris Stafford, and you can joinin the conversation anytime by following us on
social media at WHISP sports or bydropping us an email to info at wissports
(00:26):
dot com. This is the showthat dives a little bit deeper into a
sport, so we get to knowa lot more about it and we find
(00:47):
out how we can get involved withthe organization that we're featuring here, Wrestle
Like a Girl. Sally Roberts isa former US Army combat veteran and a
two time World Bronze medalist who startedthe organization in two thousand and sixteen.
They wanted to give opportunities to girlsto get involved in the sport, but
their mission was to empower girls andwomen through the sport of wrestling to become
(01:11):
leaders in life. So their longterm goals are way beyond fighting on the
mat. They believe that girls cando absolutely anything, especially wrestle, and
of course the sport is very accessibleto girls of all ages, and they
want the benefits of the sport toextend way beyond the sport itself, to
help girls and young women learn selfconfidence and resilience and to make healthy life
(01:36):
choices, both physically and mentally.They also teach them to unlock and unleash
their full human potential so that theycan become whoever they want to be,
both on and off the mat.Well, here not just only the ABC
of wrestling, what it involves,what you need to do to start wrestling,
and what the categories are, andthe potential of course within the sport.
(02:00):
And we'll also here about the workof the organization and how itself is
advancing the sport. Sally, Hi, thank you for joining me. Hello,
thank you so much for having me. Well, it's good to have
you on the show because I've beenmeaning to get you here for a long
time now, watching what you've beendoing with wrestle like a girl. Now
(02:20):
you're coming into your fourth year already, that's right. We started in twenty
sixteen and we're coming into our fourthyear and focusing on girls this year is
our motto for twenty twenty. Wedo cover old women and all old girls,
of course, but we wanted toplace particular emphasis on girls because I
don't think in the media do enoughof that generally, So we're going to
(02:45):
play our part this year in increasingexposure for girls in sport. Generally,
tell us a little bit about thebackground to the organization, because the story
is much longer than that, isn'tit. Wrestling as a sport really turned
your life around. From what I'veread, it really did. The sport
of wrestling because of the way thatit's built. It doesn't matter what your
(03:07):
weight class, your body size,your socioeconomic status where you came from.
It allows any person that wants tobe on the wrestling mat to have that
opportunity. My story began because Iwas getting into significant trouble and I was
given an ultimatum by some law authoritiesto say either find an after school activity
or go to juvenile detention. Ineeded an outlet and wrestling provided me that.
(03:30):
So I'm so thankful and I'm sograteful. So, going twenty years
into the future, when it cametime for me to look at what my
path ahead might be, I cameup with the idea that we needed more
advocacy for girls and women in thesport of wrestling, and the idea for
wrestling like a girl got hatched,and there was so much rallying and support
(03:54):
behind it from the female athletes thatit became this very fluid and nimble organization.
We started out doing wrestling camps andclinics, and then from there it
expanded into recognizing that we needed advocacy. We had to start using our voice
and using our platform be able toopen up more doors and opportunities for girls
and women, and by all ofus banning together both men and women stakeholders
(04:18):
alike, it really started to takeon a new life in a new direction.
So here we are four years later, and we're sitting at a completely
different spot and a completely different vantagepoint and when we first started in twenty
sixteen. Yeah, it's fabulous whatyou've done. It really is. And
you've got a tremendously comprehensive website aswell, full of resources and information and
(04:40):
events, and I would imagine thatreally is a go to place for a
lot of girls now once they getto know about your organization. But just
to go back a little bit furtherSally and give us a basic introduction to
wrestling for those who are not familiarwith it. What you said, the
opportunities, there's equal opportunities for girlsto get into the sport. What are
(05:00):
the kind of pre requirements if youwill. I mean, we know what
they offer tennis or for soccer,but what do you need as a girl
to get into wrestling and what arethe categories? The most important thing that
you need to have as a femalegoing into the sport of wrestling is that
you have to have courage, andyou have to have tenacity and grit,
perseverance, all of those leadership skills. It takes nothing else beyond that.
(05:26):
Then walking onto the wrestling mat.What you need in order to participate is
a wrestling mat, so a softplace to land. You need a partner
so that you can work out andtrain with, and you'll need a coach.
And from there, it's a martialart. It's a combat, so
you're in your stance and you haveto learn how to get into these positions
and roll around. Of course,it's a weight category, so you'll be
(05:49):
wrestling someone your same weight class,and depending on your age, demographic or
where you're participating, whether it's atthe high school level or with maybe the
international style of wrestling, which isfreestyle, there's going to be a different
weight category. So We do haveinformation on our website so you can determine
where your best fit is. Butessentially it's just coming as authentically as you
(06:12):
are coming and bringing a fight,being courageous and brave, and starting to
learn how to own your space andyour body. So when an opponent pushes,
you need to learn how to pull, and when their opponent pulls,
you need to learn how to pushand use their body movements and their reactions
to be able to get in andscore advantage points. And you do that
by really exposing your opponents back tothe mat or scoring two points from a
(06:34):
takedown or points from a turn byexposing their back past a ninety degree angle.
How many weight categories are there forgirls, that's a great question.
If you're looking at the international stylethat comes from the IOC with our international
federation, which is United World Wrestling, there is ten weight classes during the
(06:56):
non Olympic years. During the Olympicyears they break down to six weight classes,
so athletes are having to combine.If you're wrestling in the United States
for the collegiate system, there's fourteenweight classes in high school, and if
you're wrestling in the United States forthe cadet or Junior level, which are
age groups for younger athletes. There'sdifferent weight classes as well, so it
(07:20):
really depends on your age and whatumbrella association you're competing under that's going to
determine the weight class opportunities. Now, I would imagine, like any combat
and martial art sports, sally,you would need to have a particular attitude
to this, you know, afighting attitude, right, It wouldn't be
(07:42):
for every girl. Someone who's youknow, might be more prone to wrestling
and not have an aggressive attitude.How how much of that do you actually
develop in those early stages of teachingsomeone to wrestle, to bring out that
aggression in them and that fighting spirit. I love that you said that,
because there does need to be thatfighting spirit. But then you also have
(08:07):
athlete examples like Helen Marulus. Shestarted wrestling because she was so shy and
so introverted, and she cried allthe time that she needed to do something
that helped build her courage, andthat was a good starting point. And
then you have athletes like myself.When I came into the sport of wrestling,
I already love to fight. Iwas already aggressive, but really the
work that gets done through the coachesand through the team and the culture building
(08:28):
that you're a part of in thesport is really directing that fight towards the
mat and taking all of that energythat you have as a human, whether
it's anxiety, whether it's anger,aggression. Sometimes we've run into abandonment issues,
and directing all of that fight andbeing able to harness it and control
(08:50):
it with your head and your heartand your mind, and being able to
keep your head and all of yourwits about you in the midst of challenge
and as you go through your coachit's a journey, and you're never really
going to truly have achieved to thepoint where you say I've made it,
because the true skill in wrestling isknowing that you can be mean and you
(09:11):
can be aggressive, and that's aslight phase of it, but truly it's
about understanding the technique and keeping yourhead about you and all wits have been
lost. Well. Combat is clearlyyour middle name, I would say,
respectfully, because you were a USArmy combat veteran and as well as being
a medalist, a multi medalist,so you have a particular kind of spirit.
(09:37):
I would say for combat. Butwhen you were getting into trouble as
a child and you had all kindsof options in sport these days, there
so many options, what was itparticularly about wrestling that really floated your boat?
And I thought, you want tohave a go at this because you
were, you know, obviously combatitiveand you could really be That's a great
(10:03):
question. When I had originally beengiven my ultimatum, I did, in
fact try out for the girls sports. I tried out for softball, basketball,
and volleyball. But they're all teamsports, and they were all cut
sports. I didn't know how toplay well with others, so I was
getting cut. I was being toldI was unathletic. So when I looked
at the list of opportunities, wrestling, by the inherent nature of itself,
(10:26):
we want as many people on theteam as possible. It's a no cut
sport. So that meant as longas I went out for the team and
I didn't quit, that would bemy salvation from not going to juvenile detention
or finding myself in more trouble.So when it came to wrestling, what
I loved about it so much wasthat it didn't matter who you are or
(10:46):
how you presented, what your bodyclass, what your weight class was,
or your body You have an athletenamed Anthony Robless. He is an NCUBA
champion from Arizona State University and hehas one leg, and so it really
does anybody that wants to be onthe wrestling mat can be on the wrestling
mat. And I just love thatit supported diversity. It's supported inclusion,
(11:07):
and its supported this sort of bothsisterhood and then you of course have your
brothers that you have, and therethere came a point where it just really
built this co ed family. SoI was able to look at men and
women as equals, and the menthat looked at me, we were able
to see that we were equals.And from that we were able to really
start to really define and refine ourown fighting spirit because we know what our
(11:31):
own right and left limits are,we know what our values are, and
we know how hard we have towork in order to be successful. Did
the sport make you competitive, Sallyor were you already a very competitive child?
Oh gosh, I would say thesport honed my competitiveness. I would
say I was always very competitive,but I was very competitive at everything,
(11:54):
and now I've learned how to belabored, laser focused and what I want
to compete at. So I reallyuse the sport of wrestling. That was
what I chose, and then nowas the CEO of wrestle like a girl,
I'm very competitive at my wins andlosses. Is when it comes to
the policy and the work that wedo within the organization. Do you still
(12:15):
fight? I started doing muie taie. I really enjoy mue taie. I
really like doing jiu jitsu. Istill go in and I wrestle with the
girls when we do camps and clinics. I think it's a lot of fun
and any opportunity I can get toput my shoes on and go out onto
the mat, I enjoy it.I enjoy it because I've learned how to
get into those combat spaces or thoseathletic spaces, and it actually now relaxes
(12:39):
my body and it also takes allof my thoughts and it really starts to
streamline them and it helps me thinkin process. But it would take its
toll physically. I would imagine,no matter how good a fight to you
are, you take your knox.It's like in equestrian sport, you're going
to fall off a horse and yeah, in my case too much, but
(13:00):
you know, you take the knocksright, So I would imagine the injuries
come with it. What sort ofinjuries wrestlers are prone to. The injuries
that are most common with wrestlers.You have shoulder injuries because you're doing a
lot of grabbing, pushing, pulling. There's knee issues that you have acls,
especially when you have athletes that areon their cycle or there they have
(13:24):
a little bit of joint laxity forwhatever reason. Use can see ACL knee
issues. If you look at ourhands, like Judo, we have a
tendency to have jam thumbs, jamfingers. Potential dislocations comes from pulling and
maybe getting your fingers caught. I'vehad a really significant ipoke on accident out.
(13:46):
Yeah. Yeah, So there's injuriesthat come with it, and you
do sort of take your lumps andyour bumps. And one of the beautiful
lessons that I learned from the sportof wrestling is there's a difference between tough,
smart and tough stupid. Tough stupid. As you're injured and you really
need to take time off that youdon't want to, and you just keep
training anyway, and you either continueto injure yourself or you get injured more
(14:09):
aggressively. So I had to reallycome to embrace this notion of tough smart,
which meant the smartest thing for meto do and the toughest thing for
me to do is actually sit outand put ice on my body and go
to sports medicine, take anti inflammatoriesand really recover. And sometimes in sport,
especially if you're a very competitive person, you don't want to take any
time, any moments off the mat, so you just want to push through.
(14:31):
But that's not always the best thingto do. Now, coaching,
I would imagine, would be keythat you get the right coach and you
get the right start in the sports. Sally give us a sense of what
girls who might be listening should knowabout this, so how to find a
coach and what they need to lookfor and what parents need to look for
to guide them at those early stagesof the sport. I think that getting
(14:56):
a coach that is the right fitis really important from my perspective. First,
you want to look at the culture. What is the culture that is
in that wrestling room? Are theyreally and you have to make sure that
that culture meshes with you, andit's going to be different depending on where
you train. For me, Ireally liked tough, aggressive coaching. If
I were to look at a collegiatestyle, I really like the idea of
(15:18):
Iowa style where they're really direct andthey're heavy hitting and their intense. I
love that there's some athletes that reallylike more of a Penn State University coaching
style where and that's coached by KailSanderson, where there's a lot of positive
sports psychology. They look at thesport holistically mind, body, spirit.
(15:39):
So first off, understanding the cultureof the coach and how he implements that
he or she implements that into theroom is really important. Making sure that
when you look at coaching, askingare you background check, do you have
concussion certification? Do you understand what'syour protocol for emergency? What are your
safeguarding protocols? Really coming in andbeing an ad the kit for both yourself
(16:00):
as the athlete, but then alsomaking it so that your parents are coming
in to advocate as well, askingthem questions like how long do you want
my athlete to practice before she competes. Some coaches think that you can go
and wrestle right away in competitions.But we're finding if you do that younger
and younger ages and you try andsport specialize that you could get athlete burnout.
(16:22):
So how do they balance that andhow do they keep the sport fund
so that the athletes can get engaged. They're getting their needs met, they're
growing, they're learning, developing.I also encourage athletes and parents to ask
questions to the coaches, and thatis what is their coaching philosophy? Is
it simply to win medals or isit to develop these human beings that you
want to have go on and beproductive citizens and members of society. And
(16:47):
when you really start to peel backthe young and you realize that being a
coach is complex. So then goingon and saying, can you give me
a little bit more of your background? What's your education, Where did you
get your certifications? How do youknow and where did you learn and what
you're doing. Tell us a littlebit about the structure of a fight.
Then how how often you should fightand competitively over say a month, and
(17:11):
the length of time these fights typicallytake. When I was between the ages,
my junior high so up until Iwas fifteen, we would have I
was wrestling in junior high, wewould have two or three competitions a week,
(17:32):
but I also was practicing maybe twohours a day. In my mind
at that time, I thought itwas incredibly challenging practice, and at that
time it absolutely was, but itwasn't near what I had grown into.
When I was in high school,I had about the same competition schedule.
When I got into college, Iactually competed less because it was far more
(17:52):
aggressive. It was far more intense. I would have more fatigue, So
my competition schedule actually started to readus At the height of my elite athletic
career, when I was wrestling fora team USA, I competed maybe once
every three or four months because itwas really so challenging on my body and
I had to be prepared for itand I really needed to embrace that notion
(18:14):
of tough, smart. Towards thetail end of my career, I retired
when I was thirty six. Thatmeant that I was competing even less,
maybe three tournaments a year. Sodepending on where the athletes are at in
their sports cycle or their life cycle, it's completely feasible to think I can
go out and wrestle a tournament everyweekend or every two weekends. The caveat
(18:34):
that I would add is that upuntil the age of twelve thirteen, maybe
going into beingcoming a teenager. Ireally I personally don't encourage too many athletes
to have strong competitions. I thinkit's more fun and it does more to
build the athletic base if you cango in and have fun. And there's
(18:55):
a term that we like to saycalled gamify where you can play the game
of wrestling and that keeps the interest. You can learn the skills, and
when you start to transition over intoactually competing, it's a little bit more
fluid, and it also reduces theanxiety because it's made you love the sport
and whether you win or lose,it's about the journey and it's about the
process. When it comes to whatare the length of the matches or the
(19:18):
length at abouts, it goes byage groups. So at my most competitive
it was to three minute rounds,so six minutes. As you go to
the younger age groups, it's aminute per round and there'd be two rounds,
sometimes three rounds, depending on yourage group that you're competing in and
where you're competing, So I wouldsay that you would expect to have those
(19:42):
younger athletes being able to wrestle forabout four minutes. And if they can
do that and they can have funwhile they're doing that, then you're going
to be able to watch them grow, flourish and shine. And what does
it cost to join a club hub? But you have to look for a
club if you're not wrestling in school. It depends on where you live.
(20:04):
You can go. If you're inNew York, there's a phenomenal program called
Beat the Streets New York, andthere's free after school programs if you're a
girl or a boy that wants towrestle. I would say the average cost
of a club prize, it wouldrange anywhere from twenty so many of them
are free, so you should alwaysask if that is an issue, because
(20:25):
we recognize that there is a lotof athletes that want to wrestle that come
from challenging backgrounds and we don't wantto exclude so many of them do offer
scholarships a reduced costs to participate,But for the most part, I would
say it's anywhere from twenty five dollarsa month to maybe two hundred dollars a
month if you're going to a reallyelite club that has a travel team,
(20:45):
that really gets invested into its athletesat earlier in earlier ages, and it
seems to be a very accessible sportyou've mentioned through school, through college and
beyond. Then that applies for girlsas well as boys, a very open,
unaccessible sport. How competitive it isthat then, is that a national
(21:06):
structural like school calendar of fighting likethe MC DOUBLEA would have. Is that
does that start like at a youngage for girls in school? We're working
on it. When we started WrestleLike a Girl in twenty sixteen, from
two thousand and two to twenty andsixteen, there was six states in the
US that had a girls sanctioned highschool championship. That meant girls got to
(21:30):
wrestle another girl for a state title. One of the challenges that I had
with that was that that meant thatthere was thirty thirty plus states that did
not support female wrestling at all.I mean you had states like Mississippi that
didn't even have girls wrestling. Sowe really started to peel back the onion.
We've worked and we've helped to supporttwenty more states. So in total
(21:52):
now we have twenty states as ofthis year that have a girls high school
state championship. There's thirty more statesthat we're working with policy, legislation,
growing the sport with coaches, education, athlete participation so that we can show
the numbers and that's going to helpwith the female growth opportunities. And then
(22:14):
we recognized that those high school athletesthey needed a collegiate pipeline. There's an
association called the NAIA and they're forthe most part, smaller, more private
schools, and they've taken the initiativeand they created their own invitational and they're
working towards their championship status. Whenit came to the ncuble A, the
ncuble A, their process to becomean emerging sport status was put back on
(22:40):
to the member institutions. They saidthe member institutions have to submit a bid.
At that point in time, therewas an association that was helping to
support the women's wrestling at the collegiatelevel and it hadn't They needed some support
in getting that done. So thatwas the work that my organization was,
like the girl did. We tookthe bid, we worked on it and
(23:00):
very collaboratively, it got submitted andas of August of last year, twenty
nineteen, the Committee for Women's Athleticshas recommended women's wrestling to become an NC
double A Emerging Sport. We're allworking so hard because we have to show
that pipeline and we're showing it beingimplemented by all the NC double A members
schools and they're being compliance. Andat first of twenty twenty is the soonest
(23:25):
that the NCUBLEA could announce that women'swrestling has attained NC double Emerging Sport status
and from there, August first,twenty twenty one would be the soonest that
we could have women's wrestling as anuncable A championship sport. This has a
global effect to it because of thestructure that was written, and that was
that we wanted our women's collegiate wrestlingteam to be freestyle. And if you
(23:49):
were to look at what the menwrestle, their style is folk style,
which is very traditional to America theUnited States, and freestyle it's the global
style wrestled at the Olympics. Thatmeans any girl, any woman across the
globe that can get into a collegein the United States can determine the funding
and how that's going to work,and pass their English proficiency exam and then
(24:14):
be recruited. You can actually cometo the United States and wrestle in a
college it has a women's wrestling programthe international style, So you could be
wrestling for any of those institutions whilestill being able to go back home and
represent your country for the Olympic Games. If you've made that team, that's
fabulous. It really is growing thenexpanding across the country and around the world.
How long can you fight for?You mentioned do you retard as an
(24:38):
elite athlete in your late churches?But what is it typical as an amateur?
Would you be able to fight too? I mean, can you go
into your forties, fifties, sixties. As the level in the caliber of
female athletics continue to increase, we'renoticing that the age gap cap is dropping
lower and lower. Isis respect thatif I was trying to keep up with
(25:00):
the younger athletes now, I wouldjust really have a hard time. So
as I look at it, whatstarted to be the age cap for was
about thirty six to forty. Butnow as the athletes are getting trained younger
and younger and they start building theirskill set from those earlier ages. It's
really magical if they can get abovethe age of thirty, and that's because
(25:22):
they're really in tune with their body. They're supporting recovery, they're really aware
and in tune with nutrition and reallyliving a very healthy lifestyle to embrace a
lifetime and a lifestyle of physical activity. How many women coaches are there in
the sport, Sally, do youhave a sense of that or is that
increasing? We are working on itso incredibly hard. We noticed that that
(25:48):
is going to be a challenge.We don't have enough female coaches. This
is in all aspects of the sport, whether it's at the grassroots, the
high school, the collegiate, oreven the international style. We can look
at Hungary and Diletta is the femalecoach for the Hungarian women's team, and
we have a couple of athletes friendsthat I know that I've gone and taken
(26:10):
positions within their national federation. Alot of Anderson is now at in Norway
and works with Sweden and a coupleother programs, and we don't have enough.
So there is the life cycle ofthe athlete that is aspire You want
to aspire to be an athlete.Then you go to the inspire where you
are in that athlete phase and you'reinspiring all of these generations and yourself as
(26:33):
well. And then when you goto the finale, it's to retire.
And that used to mean that theathletes would walk off into the sunset we
would never see them again. Butthe pushed and the poll has been saying,
you have such a value in sucha skill set. I don't need
for you to retire. I needfor you to stay in the sport and
give back, and I would lovefor you to coach, and we need
for you to coach, but wealso need to in media, in front
(26:55):
of the camera, behind the cameraof course, coaching, administration, and
you name it. Like, weneed to have women in every aspect of
these roles in order to truly growthe sport and the opportunities. And we
really need to get those women tounderstand the language of money and finance,
to get in positions on committees sothat when they're having conversations within federations about
where should the money go, they'reable to say, we want to help
(27:18):
support female supporting opportunities, whether that'sfor wrestling or any sports. We need
women to take those leadership positions.Well, you've made great strides with your
organization in the three years coming tofour now that you've been in existence,
sally and lots of initiatives, thereare lots of resources. It took a
little bit about what's next on youragenda, what are your prioritists for twenty
(27:40):
twenty and then the long term goals. Our priority for twenty twenty is to
work with five more states to getthem to have a girls high school state
championship. We are really pushing hardwith the advocacy the awareness at the NCAA
level to attain and get the votesthat we need to support the Committee for
(28:02):
Women's Athletics to grant NCAA Emerging Sportsstatus to women's wrestling. We have the
Olympics coming up Tokyo twenty twenty.Women's wrestling is the featured sport of the
Games. The Japanese are the twentyyear reigning World and Olympic team champions,
so it's a huge sport for them. That's going to be the focus of
the Games, and so really makingsure that there's a lot of positive messaging,
(28:26):
positive media promotion, a lot ofeducation and information awareness. And we
have our Capstern event every year thatcelebrates all things women's wrestling, and that
is our annual gala. It happensduring the fall, and this year it's
going to be after the Olympics wherewe get to celebrate all of those all
of the wins that we've had asboth an organization but as a support a
(28:47):
whole across the globe. And thathappens here in Washington, DC, and
we would love everyone to come ifyour schedule allow us. Well, that's
fabulous, and lots of work todo. And you've got a great team
behind you there too, don't youCommittee and advises a lot of initiatives happening.
So this is it a full timejob for you now running the organization?
(29:08):
I think full time definitely underestimates theamount of time I spend, but
yes I do. I run wrestlelike a girl full time, more than
twelve hours a day. But it'sinteresting. I used to think, oh,
as an athlete, what am Igoing to do with all of these
extra hours in my day once I'mnot wrestling? And I've just learned how
(29:29):
to backfill with all of this advocacyand I love doing it, and I've
come to realize that I'm never goingto not be incredibly busy. And I've
also come to realize that as anelite athlete, what our notion of incredibly
busy is is far different than someonethat has not necessarily participated to the same
level, because we've learned how toendure, and at least for me,
(29:52):
I've learned how to endure and ona little bit, I've I've learned how
to suffer, and I've my ownpersonalities that I love to suffer a little
bit and I feel like I earnthings a little bit more when I do.
So, Yeah, I work alot and I'm thankful for it.
All right. Well, finally,Sally, what would your message be to
girls and women who are listening tothis who should find out more? A
(30:14):
good find if they can find outmore, of course on your website,
So tell them, Tell them everybodywhat they really need to know about rest
of lack a Girl and how theycan get involved. Please go to our
website. We have social media Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn. We're
working to really build our community,to build our network. We want as
many people as possible to participate.We have our national camps here in the
(30:37):
United States. If you're in thearea, we would love you to come
participate. We have countries and embassiesthat have asked us to come out,
and we have a robust international calendar, So please look at the schedule and
see if we're coming to a countrynear you, and if we're not,
then let's work out how we canhelp support either your country or your national
governing body and supporting more opportunities.And if anyone out there has ideas of
(31:00):
what we can do or different waysfor us to incorporate more stakeholders to grow
and build capacity, please reach outand give us your ideas. And again
you can find our email at onWrestle Like a Girl and it's info at
Wrestle Like a Girl dot org.Fantastic Sally, Well, thank you so
much for taking the time to comeon the show, and do come back
anytime. If you have any breakingnews that you would like to share with
(31:22):
us, we would love to shareit with our audiences. Likewise, yes,
certainly I will and we would bedelighted to share all good news.
Terrific. Well, thanks for yourtime and the very best of luck with
the organization. All right, thankyou so much. I am an American
judoka competing in the under fifty twokiogram division for the United States that I'm
a proud with the ambassador. Ibelieve women in sports is extremely important.
(31:47):
Teaches young women from a young ageto believe in themselves, to have great
self confidence, and especially this Olympicmovement, you can see great athletes such
as Simone Biles, Kayla Harris,for example, Mary Malloy, which is
our fro, a friend of mine. These are great female role models,
strong women in sports. My socialmedia account is at jug ju Ji Underscore
(32:10):
Angie an Gie and I just wantto thank you so much for listening,
and we'll have links on our shownotes accompanying this episode on the website at
wessports dot com. Just go tothe listen tab on the top there and
drop down the menu to Sport inFocus, and whilst you're there, take
a look around. We have alot more shows here on the network.
(32:31):
There are forty six to choose fromright across the spectrum of women and girls
in sport, and in this yeartwenty twenty, we want to be focusing
more on girls in sports. Soif you have any stories or would like
us to talk to any girls inany sport. Please do drop us a
line to info atwissports dot com.You can also post comments, of course
(32:52):
on our Facebook page or leave amessage there. Just look for with sports
and as there's a sport that weshould be focusing more on, then do
let us know. We would loveto hear from you. And if you
have a moment when you're on iTunes, do drop us a review. It
does help us to go up theratings on iTunes, so let us know
what you think too. With sportspodcasts, we would love to hear from
(33:15):
you. So until the next time, thank you for listening and for helping
us turn up the volume on women'ssports.
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