Women in Wrestling

Mangosteen · Mar 8, 2015

In honour of women's day I would like to make a post about women in wrestling.

Wrestling is traditionally male dominated but just last week Iran added a women's belt wrestling program showing the maybe progress and equality is happening slowly even in the most oppressive of areas, through wrestling.

Here is a clip of article about an up and coming wrestling champion (and national hero) from mongolia. Read the article for an account of her training which is insanely buudaazz

Squeezed between Russia and China, Mongolia is a country steeped in the folklore of self-reliant, masculine men. The land of Genghis Khan, Mongolia's ethos swirls with nomadic toughness and a historical pride in ancestors who once conquered half the earth armed with little more than resilience and cunning.

Wrestling sits at the center of that macho Mongolian culture. In the time of the Mongol Empire, Khans would choose generals based on their efficacy and courage in wrestling competition. That wrestling style, known as Mongolian Bokh, exists today and, despite incursions from soccer and basketball, remains the country's most popular sport. However popular, Bokh is still only practiced by men.

Chimdee was raised in Ulaanbaatar, the often-polluted and desperately cold capital city of Mongolia. Her father died when she was 7 and her mother, sick for much of her teens, raised her to be mannered and tough.

Like they do with champion horses, Mongolians believe in bloodlines when choosing wrestlers. Chimdee's father had been a champion wrestler from the countryside, so when wrestling was first offered to girls in the early 2000s, Chimdee's mother trusted that her daughter had a chance at success on the mat. "I was always hearing about my father's wrestling," Chimdee said. "Wrestling scared me, but I wanted to be like him and so did my mother."

Following her instincts, Chimdee's mother grabbed her daughter's hand and marched her into a local wrestling club. Over the next several years the club became her second home.

On the mat today Chimdee dominates opponents with a unique blend of brutality and flexibility, that has made her a marketable star at home. Chimdee controls opponents with withering hip pressure and frustrates them with a Gumby-esque ability to squirm out of danger. In the 2013 Junior World finals, Chimdee, then 18, met the leg attacks of her opponent with the pointy edge of her hip and sent the outmatched grappler tumbling back over her own legs again and again. "She's one of the toughest wrestlers I've ever seen," said Mongolian Wrestling Federation president Dagvadorj Asashoryu. "She works hard and is strong. We think she can be an Olympic champion."

Over the past several years, Asashoryu -- most noteworthy as the 68th Grand Yokozuna of sumo -- has poured hundreds of thousands of dollars of the federation's money into the development and success of women's wrestling in Mongolia. The imposing 280-pound former wrestling champion says that in addition to national glory he sees the quest for Olympic gold as a way to improve the lives of women wrestlers in Mongolian culture. "Mongolians bleed wrestling," Asashoryu said. "Wrestlers love the Mongolian people and they love their wrestlers."

The national pride and the desire to please a nation and its legacy sit at the center of Chimdee's external motivations. "I would never have seen the world without wrestling," Chimdee said. "My life is for the sport of wrestling, and I want to make my mother and country proud."
Click to expand...

Here is also a picture of Katie Sandwina, a suffragette, an unbeaten wrestler, boxer and strongwoman (who defeated Sandow by lifting 300 pounds overhead, which Sandow could not do).
It's also worthy to note that at the time when played in circuses she was considered extremely feminine despite her strength and height.

Mushroom · Mar 9, 2015

Here's a snippet from the Olympics about the Womens division.

Guide To Women's Freestyle Wrestling | Faster Higher Stronger:
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8YoFZg_NGM&"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8YoFZg_NGM&[/ame]

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Women in Wrestling

Mangosteen Hold strong not

Mushroom De-powered to come back better than before.

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Women in Wrestling

Mangosteen Hold strong not

Mushroom De-powered to come back better than before.

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