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Women's wrestling out of 2006 Asian Games
December 5, 2003 at 06:35 JST
KUWAIT — Women's wrestling will most likely not be an event at the 2006 Asian Games in Doha, Qatar, Japan Olympic Committee sources said Thursday.
According to the sources who attended the Olympic Council of Asia board meeting in Kuwait earlier this week, games organizers refused to include wrestling in the competition schedule as the exposure of skin by women is against Islamic beliefs. (Kyodo News)
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Katy High School (Houston, Texas)
12/5/ 2003 Houston Chronicle)
FIVE years ago, the proud Katy High School wrestling program was born
under the guidance of head coach Tim Ripperger, lovingly called 'coach Rip'
by his students. After a great deal of success in the first three years, the
program has fallen on tough times, mainly due to lack of participants.
"(The program) was something like 60-3 in our dual (meet) record in the
first three years," said coach Ripperger, a native of Kansas. "We got
as high as fifth in the state the first three years, and we've had two
state champions in boys, two state champions in girls, and we've had numerous
district and regional champions. So we've had a great run in five
years. Over the past couple of years . . . we've gone down, but our challenge
to this year's squad is to try to restore the pride. We're going to start
our climb back up again."
The ladder won't be that crowded. Most competitive schools have at
least 50 athletes competing in each tournament, but the Tigers only have 17.
"We started off with about 17 and that's where we are about right now,"
he said last week. "Our goal this year is to get back up to 50 again that
consistently participate in the sport. Hopefully out of that 50 we have
anywhere from 35 to 40 that are primarily wrestling and the other 15
are potentially people that are two-sport athletes."
Another problem for the wrestling team is the result of a very
successful football program at Katy. Success on the gridiron has led to a playoff
berth, which extends the length of time Ripperger is without some of
his key wrestlers.
"We have probably half the team still in football and then the other
half is with us now, so we scaled back our schedule a little bit because we're
not going to be in full strength until later in December, maybe early
January," said the coach.
The Tigers' only state qualifier is James Aston who is also a star
running back and vital member of the Katy football team. Aston will probably
compete at the 189-pound class.
"We talked about what state champions do, and state champions look for
the next challenge," said Ripperger. "And he took that and he in total
support of his parents and everything else, he proceeded to take his title and
go national and from that point he got second in the nation twice at two
different tournaments. And the sad part is he lost to the same guy
twice from Missouri, so I know already now he's motivated to take that kid on
again."
Along with Aston, senior Justin Stermer had a great season and is
expected to improve this year. He'll probably compete between at between 135 and
145 pounds. Adding quality depth is junior Joe Grayson, a two-time regional
qualifier who will wrestle at 112, as well as junior Michael Orlando at
119, who is a returning state qualifier.
Among girls wrestlers, Ripperger says the news is better.
"The girls team has pretty high expectations," said the coach. "They
kind of surprised everybody. They repeated as district and regional champions
so they're now going for their third year and the only other team to have
done something that well is Taylor High School girls."
Last year, the Lady Tigers finished fourth in the state. The Katy girls
have three state medalists returning in seniors Terri Lopez at 138 pounds
(the girls team captain), Steph Haver at 138 and Melissa Terry at 95. Those
three constitute the core of the senior class.
The biggest challenge for both the boys and girls teams in district
19-5A will come from Cinco Ranch.
"Cinco Ranch is probably the leader," admitted Ripperger. "They're the
two-time defending district champions. But hopefully by the end of this
season well be ready to challenge them."
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Herald Poll: Should girls wrestle with boys?
Friday, December 05, 2003 - 12:00 AM
The Daily Herald |
The mother of a 9-year-old Santaquin wrestler is crying foul over a wrestling tournament, but not for anything that happened on the mat.
Rather, Kristi Jones says organizers of the Rocky Mountain Wrestling Invitational discriminated against her daughter, Courtney Jackson, by not allowing her to wrestle against boys.
She said her daughter was never called up for a match, even though she competed in the tournament last year and won first place.
The tournament's organizer said it wasn't discrimination. Male wrestlers and their parents simply weren't comfortable with the idea of wrestling a girl.
Jones and the mother of another female wrestler are now consulting with the American Civil Liberties Union to determine what to do next.
The controversy raises questions about whether there are some sports in which girls shouldn't compete, or at least compete against boys.
On one hand, some of the Victorian notions of what constitutes appropriate girls' activities have fallen by the wayside, and rightfully so. Women are formidable performers in many sports, even some traditionally dominated by males. One of the fastest times swimming the English channel was clocked by a woman. At the 1998 Winter Olympics, it was the American women's hockey team, not the men's, that gave Americans something to cheer about on the ice. There are plenty of cases of girls playing high school football with boys, and succeeding admirably. One such case is Tonya Butler, who was the place kicker in Riverdale, Ga. She is now in her senior year at Division II University of West Alabama.
Indeed, they sometimes succeed better than their opponents might wish. The girl in high school wrestling who pins her male opponent (and make no mistake -- they do this not infrequently) may inflict a little extra humiliation on her counterpart. It's tough for the guy: Culturally, a boy wrestler has nothing to gain by winning -- after all, it was a g-i-i-rrrl. And amid the often brutal judgments of adolescent peers he stands to lose more than usual if defeated.
Of course, size and strength differences define the sexes on average. But they don't necessarily apply in specific matchups. They don't automatically mean a girl will be at a disadvantage in a specific sport, on a specific team in a particular age group. So why shouldn't girls be able to compete against boys?
From one perspective, the problem is the nature of wrestling.
Take this comparison: In basketball and wrestling, contestants wear minimal padding. But physical contact in basketball is not continuous, and most is prohibited by the rules. Football calls for heavy contact, but contestants are insulated from one another by heavy padding, and once again the contact is not continuous.
Wrestling uniquely involves continuous close body contact as a basic definition of the game. And that makes some people nervous.
While it may be seen in some circles as OK for 7-year-old boys and girls to wrestle, things get uncomfortable as participants get older and more physically developed. Some people get so worried about it that they actually frame it as a moral issue. Parents would have to tell their son that he can't touch a girl in certain places when they're on a date, but it's OK during a wrestling match. For some, this poses a mind-boggling ethical dilemma.
At the same time, many longtime wrestling coaches and youths wonder what all the fuss is about. Anybody who has competed in a wrestling match knows perfectly well there's no sexuality in it whatsoever. It's about survival. It's about suffering. It's about overcoming pain. It's about desperation and endurance.
And besides, they ask, why don't the worrywarts worry about a young man groping another young man? It's a fair question that points out the double standard in the argument.
It's true that a mixed-gender team might put a coach in an awkward position. Many wrestling coaches teach by example, getting out there on the mat and demonstrating how to perform certain moves. If a coach puts a "cow-catcher" move on a female participant, what nefarious sexual conduct might he be accused of perpetrating? And how many parents would be comfortable having an adult man demonstrate wrestling maneuvers on their high school daughters -- maneuvers, for example, like the humiliating "honeymoon ride" that always gets a lot of snickers at wrestling practice?
These are tough questions that ought to be posed to someone who's been there. Teachers are already wary of any physical contact with students of the opposite sex, or even being alone in the same room with one of them.
Is mixed-gender wrestling just an invitation for trouble, or is it much ado about nothing?
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Should girls and boys be allowed to wrestle together? Send your comments to dhpolls@heraldextra.com or call 344-2942. Please leave your name, hometown and phone number with your comments. Anonymous or unverifiable responses will not be published.
The responses will be published Dec. 14.