Women’s Senegalese Wrestling and the Real Victims of the IOC
T.R. Foley
For centuries female wrestlers in Senegal have competed in seasonal wrestling matches as a way to help create good fortune for the annual rice crop. However, with the expansion of Olympic opportunities for women in wrestling the nation’s most-talented female wrestlers have become accustomed to using the sport as a vessel for recognition on the international stage and fighting for equal rights at home. It’s an opportunity that gives Senegalese women hope for …

Twenty four hours into my return trip to Mongolia and there is already plenty to report; including a new wrestling video, updates from the Guinness World Record tournament and some surprising news from the World Championships in Turkey. All that and a weather update from the coldest capital city in the world.
The Mongolian national team is in Turkey right now, leaving me without many of my closest in-country contacts. Tomorrow is the start of Mongolia’s record-breaking 4096 man wrestling tournament …

Don’t look now, but the rule of skirts in girl’s sports might one day be replaced by battle-hardened female wrestlers. The ground swell of participation in wrestling by high school girls topped a recent survey conducted by the The National Federation of State High School Associations (NFSHA) in percentage increase of participation.
The number of girl wrestlers in high schools grew to 7,351 athletes, an increase of 1,217 wrestlers from the previous year (an impressive 19.8 percent increase). This made girls …

Part of my research in Mongolia is trying to understand what it is about wrestling that has kept the attraction of Mongolians for centuries. There are possible explanations in their landscape and lifestyle, and certainly their physical hardiness seems to play a role (though I’ve only been in and around UB…). However, one of the reasons (or is it result) I’ve seen is that Mongolians genuinely seem to enjoy participating in wrestling. That is, they love to wrestle.
Wrestling is different …