WAYS TO ACHIEVE GENDER EQUALITY IN FREESTYLE WRESTLING

Abstract

Wrestling is an Olympic sport that includes Greco-Roman wrestling for men and freestyle wrestling for men and women. At the modern Olympic Games, 18 medal events are contested in wrestling: six for men and six for women in freestyle wrestling, and six for men in Greco-Roman wrestling. The purpose of this study is to analyze the paths to achieving gender equality in wrestling, as developed by the United World Wrestling International Federation. For a long time, for almost a century – 1904-2000 – the competition for supremacy was exclusively men's. Women in this sport only entered the Olympic arena later, in 2004. These advances were achieved thanks to the gender-focused policy of the International Olympic Committee in conjunction with the United World Wrestling (UWW) international federation. To achieve gender equality among Olympic participants from 2004 to 2024, the number of men was reduced and the number of women was increased. United World Wrestling has now established a commission on gender equality, diversity, and inclusion, whose work is aimed at implementing the gender equality strategy – the UWW Action Plan 2022-2026. An analysis of these initiatives allowed us to identify areas that will lead to gender parity in the international federation's core activities. Thus, the activities of the United World Wrestling International Federation demonstrate targeted efforts to overcome gender inequality. Gender parity has been achieved among participants in the 2020 and 2024 Olympic Games, facilitated by the establishment of an equal number of weight classes for men and women–six each, respectively. Positive trends have been identified in the key areas identified by the UWW: the number of women involved in freestyle wrestling has increased by 64,56%, the number of female coaches has increased significantly by 62% and female referees by 82,5%, and in the UWW governing body, women's participation is 25% in the executive committee.