#WomensDay2022

Gender Equality, WW Development UWW's Focus Through '24 Paris Games

Monday, March 7, 2022 - 19:01 By United World Wrestling Press

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CORSIER-SUR-VEVEY, Switzerland (March 8) -- United World Wrestling continues to make significant efforts to lift the standard of women's wrestling around the world -- not only on the mat, but off the mat as well.

One of the biggest testimonies to those efforts was UWW Bureau member ZHANG Xia being awarded the International Olympic Committee's Women in Sport Award as she strives to provide more opportunities to lift women wrestlers and referees.

A part of UWW's five-year strategic plan, women's wrestling is one of the main aspects with an aim to achieve gender equality. The UWW Gender Equality Development Programme represents recognition, encouragement, and empowerment for the individuals and the National Federations of UWW.

Each year, the program is awarded a project or organization that contributes to the development and is committed to tackling gender biases and inequalities in wrestling, in such areas as participation of girls in wrestling, elite-level women’s wrestling development, a coaching program for women [WSLA] and development of women referees and women in leadership.

Another high-level highlighting women in the sport was the '21-'22 The Women Lead Sport Programme, which featured  40 participants -- 95% women – from five different continents.

The objectives of the Women Lead Sports Master Program were to empower participants to shape the future of wrestling as a global sport, increase a diverse talent pool in leadership within UWW at all levels, and to learn effective leadership strategies, techniques, and applicable tactics that work today.

Women Lead Sports Master Program Topics:
- Personal Power and Influence
- Stakeholder management and use of skills navigating politics
- Self-awareness of personal leadership style, areas of development and strengths
- Communication and Persuasion skills
- Negotiation skills
- Networking, sponsoring, mentoring, and lobbying skills
- Self-confidence, courage and assertiveness
- Sport Electoral year and best practices
- Leading in male-dominated environments with success and authenticity.

UWW also renewed the Women in Sport Leadership Programme for five female coaches in collaboration with OS 2022-2024. Like for Tokyo Games, UWW has come up with a dedicated program for the promotion of women referees up to Paris Olympics 2024 with the first major event being the Commonwealth Games 2022 in Birmingham, England.

UWW also had two recipients of the World Academy of Sports Post Graduate program from Gambia and Australia.

Technical Assistance

In 2021, despite the barriers and challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, UWW continued to support the National Federations in various forms especially to increase more participation of women in wrestling.

One of the biggest courses held was in Saudi Arabia, which hosted the UWW Women’s Coaching Course. Women from different provinces of Saudi Arabia participated in the UWW Technical Course for Coaches – Introduction to Coaching and Safety from December 5-9, 2021 in the Green Hall, Ministry of Sport, Riyadh. This course was organized by the Saudi Arabian Wrestling Federation and supported by the Leaders Development Institute.

UWW has continued to put focus on gender equality and as a result, the 2021 Women Lead Sports Master Programme was organized. It is a biannual program that promotes gender equality and empowers women in wrestling has been organized. 

Due to the pandemic, the program was carried out virtually over two sessions on November 29 and December 6 with Q&A and Graduation/Certificates sessions in January 2022. With the 2024 Paris Games in mind, the program continues to be held every two years since 2017.

Regarding the technical assistance of wrestlers and coaches, UWW assisted a total of 79 athletes and 39 coaches from 44 countries on the five continents in participating in the Tokyo Olympic Qualifiers.

Women wrestlers constituted 18 percent of the total beneficiaries and one of the wrestlers -- Bolortuya BAT OCHIR (MGL) -- qualified for the Tokyo Games and even won a bronze medal.

For World Championships in Oslo in 2021 and 54 athletes and 25 coaches were approved for support and women wrestlers achieved the most noticeable results. Among all the teams that benefited from Technical Assistance, the following athletes finished in the top five. 

Samar HAMZA (EGY) -- 76kg bronze
MELENDRES Luisa VALVERDE (ECU) -- 53kg 5th
Lais NUNES DE OLIVEIRA (BRA) -- 62kg 5th

A 50 percent membership for women was achieved in the Athletes Commission. The election for the commission for the term 2021-2025 was held in Oslo during the World Championships. While two seats were pre-empted for women wrestlers, three were selected to the seven-member committee.

Trailblazer Epp Mae retires as Estonia's top wrestler

Tuesday, January 28, 2025 - 13:16 By Vinay Siwach

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ESTONIA (January 28) -- European champion and two-time World Championships medalist Epp MAE (EST) announced her retirement earlier in January at an emotional press conference in Tallinn. She left her shoes on the mat, symbolizing retirement from wrestling.

The 32-year-old is Estonia's most successful wrestler in Women's Wrestling, winning gold at the European Championships in 2021 and silver medals in the 2017 and 2022 editions. She also has a bronze medal from 2019.

At the World Championships, Mae became the first Estonian wrestler to win a medal, enter the final, and even have two medals. She won silver in the 76kg in 2021, plus three bronze medals in 2015, 2019, and 2022.

"The day I announced my retirement was very emotional and hard because something so big in your life came to an end," Mae told UWW. "I knew that I was about to retire because I was expecting a baby. But it was difficult to stand in front of the people and say that this part of my life has ended, so announcing was harder than deciding it inside myself."

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by Epp Mäe (@eppmae)

Mae is a two-time Olympian for Estonia. She made her Olympic debut at the 2016 Rio Games and finished 13th. She improved to eighth at the 2020 Tokyo Games. For the 2024 Paris Olympics, Mae tried qualifying in the 76kg weight class but failed to achieve that. Her last international competition was the World Olympic Qualifier in May in Istanbul.

"To be honest, I did not expect my career to be this long, as it is," she said. "I did not have any role models in female wrestling in Estonia when I was growing up. So I had no idea whether it was possible to earn money or live from wrestling and how far it was possible to go from my country. I dedicated my life and my career to wrestling as much as I could. An athlete should know it's time to step down. It aligned for me with a wish to start a family."

Epp MAE (EST)An emotional Epp MAE (EST) announcing her retirement in a wrestling club in Tallinn on January 9. (Photo: ERR / Siim Lõvi)

Mae took up wrestling after her father, a former wrestler, pushed her into the sport. However, there were no partners to train with and Mae did not have any national competitions. She even trained in judo and sumo just to get training.

When Estonia did start a national championship in women's wrestling, Mae dominated, winning it 12 times in her career. For other sports, she is a four-time Estonian sumo champion, a four-time Estonian beach wrestling champion, and has also been an Estonian judo champion on one occasion.

"I have always laughed that the population of Estonia is 1.3 million and I am one in a million to choose to do something like this and be successful," she said. "Coming from a small nation, it is not easy to break through to the top. Most likely you don't have training partners at home. you have to travel a lot away from your country and get to train at a level that you need to succeed."

Epp MAE (EST)Epp MAE (EST), red, wrestling at the 2014 World Championships in Tashkent. (Photo: United World Wrestling / Martin Gabor)

Internationally, Mae made her debut in 2007 at the U17 European Championships, winning a bronze medal in the 70kg weight class. She began her senior career at the Yasar Dogu in 2011 and won a silver medal at 72kg at the age of 18.

In 2012, Mae clinched the U20 European Championships and remains the only Estonian wrestler to win gold at the continental event at any age group. A decade later, she reached the final of the World Championships at 76kg, marking another historic landmark in Estonian wrestling.

"As I said there was no one in front of me to lead the way, I am happy that I went through everything to get to places and results that I managed to and kind of make a path for all the girls from Estonia who will ever wish or have this doubt whether it is possible to get that far," she said. "I am happy that they have a path already in front of them. I wish that they would want to go bigger and further than I did. I will be more than excited and happy if someone did do that."

Epp MAE (EST)Epp MAE (EST) wrestling in the 2021 World Championships final at 76kg in Oslo. (Photo: United World Wrestling / Tony Rotundo)

Reflecting on her career two-decade-long career, Mae did share her disappointment of not winning a medal at the Olympics but was happy to have achieved what she has for Estonia.

"My father recently told a journalist that what I did [in wrestling] was against the odds because we did not have all the possibilities and facilities a bigger team would have," she said. "So I think I did good in my career by achieving the results that I did. Little sad that I did not win a medal at the Olympics. But I can leave wrestling knowing that I gave everything. There is never going to be any doubt that what if I could have done this or that."

Now off the mat, Mae will concentrate on her family and follow the sport from afar.

"I will keep following wrestling and the wrestling friends I have made during the years. I will keep following them," she said. "For Estonia wrestling, I wish all the girls in different age groups we have right now will be motivated just to go as far as possible and always try to achieve the best for you. I will try to help Estonian wrestling as I can and I hope they will not stop developing Estonian female wrestling."