#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.

#development

Kenyan Wrestling Federation aims to go beyond the summits 

Tuesday, November 14, 2023 - 18:33 By United World Wrestling Press

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NAIROBI, Kenya (November 14) The Kenyan Wrestling Federation, in partnership with the Kenyan Olympic Committee, is working to grow and develop wrestling in their country. Today, the Kenyan Wrestling Federation is one of the leading wrestling federations participating at the world and continental levels. Based on that, the NOC and the KWF have decided to organize courses for their coaches and referees to help their training further.

The coaches and referees participated in a Level 1 Coaching Course and an Introduction to Referee Course from October 20-24. The Refereeing Course ended with a competition on October 25, intending to evaluate the referees understanding.

The Level 1 Coaching Course was conducted by Vincent AKA – UWW development officer from the Ivory Coast. The course had 25 participants (18 men and seven women). "The participants were very disciplined, excited, and asked questions. Their active participation during the course showed their willingness to learn," said Aka.

For the first time, the Kenyan Wrestling President came to the closing ceremony, sending a warm word to the participants and the trainers. "We appreciate you; thank you for coming to Kenya to train our coaches and referees," said Mr. President.

At the closing ceremony, Humphrey KAYANGE, a Kenyan IOC member representing the President of the Kenyan National Olympic Committee, sent a very encouraging word to the participants. "Continue to enjoy the sport; you have so many opportunities. There are so many opportunities where the National Olympic Committee supports you. But this is a start; you cannot stop here," said Kayange.

Kayange also mentioned there's a lot of potential in Kenya for wrestling. "There's a lot of Mahabilas in Kenya and we need to create a pathway for them. We also want to continue to support all the coaches and referees who have shown their commitment," said Kayange.

KENKenya hosted an Introduction to Referee Course in Nairobi in late October. (Photo: United World Wrestling)

The Level 1 Course focused more on how to coach. The coaches participated in practical assessments to demonstrate their skills, while the theoretical part was a written examination. 

Mr. Charles VILLET – UWW Educator, IS, Olympic Referee and Rio Golden Whistle winner, conducted the Introduction to Refereeing course. This course had the same participants. 

The referee participants focused on skills that would provide a solid foundation as a referee. They focused on evaluations of holds, starting and ending matches, and referee mechanics, among many other areas. The participants learned these areas through theoretical and practical applications. Then, at the end of the course, the new candidates refereed the local U17 tournament. This allowed them to use the skills that they learned during the course. 

"All of you are winners. This sport is the best for development, respect, teaching people, and respecting your father, mother, and country," said Villet. 

"We have been fortunate in these areas, especially on technical issues. Techniques are changing, and how people execute techniques becomes different. We need to improve our technical game because that is the base of everything," said Mr. Wallucho, the Kenyan Wrestling Federation Secretary.