Picture the squeaking sounds of rubber scraping rubber, sweat pouring down each opponents’ face as they collide, blood and bruises forming with every move. A true test of strength and smarts, a sport that was once considered to be owned by men, is now shining in a new light as women take to the mat and show that wrestling is both an men’s and women’s sport.  

Junior Virginia Foard wrestles at King University and said that the sport of wrestling teaches more lessons off the mat than on it.  

“Wrestling is both an individual and team sport,” Foard said. “It teaches you mental toughness between cutting weight, high intensity practices, lifting, and the ability to overcome negative thoughts and to not give up.”  

Women’s wrestling first became popular back in the 1980’s and 90’s but didn’t start hitting its stride until the 2000’s through the 2010’s, even becoming an official Olympic sport in 2004. According to the NCAA’s official website, women’s wrestling was officially recognized as a sport in 2025 and a women’s wrestling championship is set to be held in winter of 2026. 

“I have loved seeing the growth of the sport in general,” retired athlete and current head coach of the women’s wrestling team at Eastern View High School Lexi Snow said. “As it has become more popular, I love seeing women’s wrestling become accepted within the wrestling society.” 

According to Americanwomenswrestling.com, in the United States today there are currently 146 women’s college wrestling programs with 85 NCAA programs, 47 NAIA programs and 14 NJCAA programs. There are also over 1,600 teams at the high school level with 45 of the states that carry the sport being officially sanctioned as a high school sport. 

“I’d like to see more involvement from women in the future would be really nice,” Waynesburg women’s wrestling head coach Karli Thomas said. “It’s way more popular now to have a Women’s wrestling team now than it was 10 years ago and the future is looking towards that.” 

According to Ihswa.org, the first high school women’s wrestling team formed in 1993 and this led to the first official U.S. girls wrestling Nationals in 1997. It didn’t stop there, as women’s wrestling went both international and professional with the first two women Tricia Saunders and Afsoon Roshanzamir to win both a bronze medal and a world title and The Women of Wrestling (WOW) founded in 2000.  

“People can expect to see more countries involved, especially in the Olympics,” Foard said. “Since more countries are adding the competition, the matches at the Olympic level will become more competitive. This allows for competitors to have great talent, better technique and overall strength leading to more coverage and opportunity for women wrestlers.” 

While the sport of women’s wrestling has picked up significant ground, the appearance of women officials has also started to grow. Rita Chatterton, Jessika Carr, and Aubrey Edwards are just some of the more popular women’s referees in the sport.  

Chatterton became the first women to referee pro wrestling in 1984, Carr has been a prominent referee in World Wrestling Entertainment since signing with the company in 2017, and Edwards became the first woman to referee a world championship match on paper view in 2019.  

“I hope the sport continues to gain more female officials,” Snow said. “It will add more voices to women’s wrestling and the current generations of female wrestlers will be seen as first generation of successful officials at all levels.” 

Women’s wrestling has not only added female referees, but female coaches are also starting to become more prominent in the sport. According to the official NCAA website 41 percent of athletic programs are coached by women and while that number may seem low, it has slowly increased as time has gone on. 

“There are women’s coaches, but there are more mens coaches than womens,” Thomas said. “I’ve loved seeing the confidence build, seeing them learn new things and see how it translates into other area of their lives.” 

While most people agree that wrestling is a sport that is owned by men, women are slowly emerging as a driving force to show that you can bleed, sweat, and push yourself, but the real excitement comes on the matt when rubber touches rubber and the true test of smarts and strength begin.