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Tuvan Wrestler Bronze Medal Winner in European Sumo Championship
September 3, 2006 Juergen Boden
Kan-Demir Kuular, famous Tuvan wrestler, Russian sumo champion in 2006 (under 85 kg), has come third in the European Sumo Championship, which has just finished in Riesa (Germany). Another Tuvan Adar Kuular was a championship referee.
In the present championship, already Riesa’s 4th European Sumo-Wrestling Championship, a total of 110 athletes from 15 European nations have taken part, 69 men and 41 women. The dominating wrestlers were, as usual, from the Russian Federation, whose athletes – especially their women – have garnered most of the medals.
In men team contest Russian Federation won a gold medal, Bulgaria - silver, the third place was shared by Netherlands and Poland. Russian women came first in team contest. Ukraine is a runner-up. Germany and Bulgaria came third.
The city of Riesa was founded in 1119 A.D. and has today 37.000 inhabitants. Prior to the fall of the “iron curtain” in 1990, Riesa was known for its heavy industry and steelworks. Nowadays it still is home for a steelwork, a tire manufacturer and respective sub-contractors.
Since 10 – 12 years, Riesa has also become a well-known sports-city with the respective infrastructure for large sporting events, for which the major indoor facility is the Erdgas-Arena (with up to 9.000 seats). Riesa was the first city outside of Japan to hold a Sumo-Wrestling World Championship in 1999, and was again selected for this yearly event in 2004.
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Breaking through barriers
Jeff’s Jennifer Jackson defies all stereotypes as first female football player
By KEVIN HARRIS 3/3/06
sports@newsandtribune.com
Jennifer Jackson does not play football to make a political statement.
She does not play the sport to promote Title IX.
She plays the sport because it is in her blood and most importantly — she loves it.
“When I was young, I wasn’t really a girly girl,” Jackson said. “My brothers used to play and I wanted to be like them.”
Her passion for the pigskin has enabled her to make history in her freshman year at Jeffersonville High School.
Jackson, 14, is the first female to ever strap on the pads for the Red Devils’ football program. In her first two games for the Jeff freshman team, she has started at wide receiver. She also plays defensive back and special teams.
Jackson, who will also play for the Jeff wrestling, girls’ basketball and softball squads this year, says some people are stunned that she is playing high school football.
“People are amazed that I’m playing. Most people didn’t think I would play my freshman year,” said Jackson, whose goal is to crack the varsity roster by her junior year.
Jackson showed her potential last Monday at Seymour. She made her first high school reception — a 30-yard catch on a fade pattern — in a 14-12 setback to the Owls.
“It felt great,” Jackson said about her first catch. “We have done pretty good. We’re just getting better and hitting harder.”
Red Devils freshman coach Danny Struck said her concentration to make the reception was excellent.
“She gets hit on the bottom and she’s got to concentrate on catching the ball,” Struck said. “She caught it after the hit and kept her eyes on it.”
Struck has liked what he has seen from the 5-foot-7 rookie so far and says she has room to grow.
“She’s mentally pretty tough. I know that because she wrestled for me for the past four years,” said Struck, who is also Jeff High’s head wrestling coach and coaches the Team Jeff Wrestling Club. “Right now, she’s doing great. As bodies mature and as people get older, time will tell. Her frame of mind is in the right place.”
Jackson began playing football when she was 5 years old, competing for a flag team. From third to sixth grade, she played in the tackle divisions of the Jeffersonville Clark County Youth Football League. Jackson then played two years at Parkview Middle School .
Jackson has been a skill-position player throughout her football career. In her JCCYFL tenure, she played quarterback and running back. Last year as an eighth-grader, she was a wideout for the Parkview eighth-grade team and played quarterback for the seventh-grade squad. One of her highlights as the seventh-grade signal-caller was three touchdown passes in a 50-0 victory over city rival River Valley.
“It felt great,” Jackson said about being Parkview’s quarterback. “I threw a 52-yard touchdown to Taylor Madison. It was pretty easy.”
Jackson is currently third on the quarterback depth chart for the Jeff freshman squad. She welcomes the opportunity to get under center.
“If I had a chance, I would,” Jackson said.
Despite having her own locker-room area to change into her football gear, Jackson is treated like any ordinary player by her teammates and coaches.
“They don’t treat me different,” she said. “Just because I’m a girl, they treat me as a guy on the team. I know they won’t take it easy on me.”
Struck recalls one instance in practice when one of Jackson’s teammates, who played at River Valley, questioned whether to tackle her.
“One time a River Valley kid said, ‘You want us to hit her. She’s a girl.’ One time that was said and I’ve never heard a word since,” Struck said. “The Parkview kids never have questioned her.”
Jackson has caught some opposing players off guard when she goes head-to-head with them.
“They’re like, ‘Oh my God, it’s a girl.’ They are all surprised,” Jackson said. “They probably think just because I’m a girl, I don’t play good.”
But Jackson does not back down from any opponent and shows it by applying hits to her foes.
“People say on my team that I hit hard. I’m just like another guy on the team,” she said. “It’s just part of the game.”
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this is a older show from 3/25/06 but worth a look
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Sixteen-year-old Olivia has been wrestling since the fifth grade, but her mother, Martha, still doesn't approve. "I want her to be a lady," she says.
Olivia, 16, has been wrestling since the fifth grade. Her mother, Martha, thinks it's unladylike to wrestle. "Maybe I'm old fashioned, but I want her to be a lady," Martha declares. "I told her she could do anything she wanted to do, to reach for the stars. But I didn't know one of her stars was really going to be wrestling."
"My mom wants me to be in beauty pageants," Olivia says, admitting that she enjoys getting dressed up and putting on makeup. "It was fun, but I would rather wrestle. With wrestling, the adrenaline kicks when you almost have the pin."
Martha's worst fear is that Olivia will injure herself. "I'm concerned about neck injuries," she confesses. "I'm very concerned about sexual harassment. I saw her wrestling a young man. I didn't like it ... I think people in the school will get the wrong idea."
Olivia adds, "My mom is scared I'm going to become the butt of all the jokes and I'm not going to grow up to be a lady. I'm going to get these big Arnold Schwarzeneger muscles and I'll be in my wedding dress with these bulging biceps."
She turns to Dr. Phil for he Acknowledging that Martha thinks it's unladylike to wrestle, Dr. Phil points out that Olivia is not the only female wrestler. "There are 5,000 high school girls wrestling throughout the country now," he says. Also, 2004 was the first year that women's wrestling was an Olympic sport and six colleges now have women's wrestling teams. "I wrestled when I was younger, and you do get in some compromising positions," Dr. Phil says, showing a picture of two women wrestling in a collegiate match. "Are you comfortable with that?" he asks Olivia.
"It's wrestling. It's all part of the game," Olivia answers. Addressing Martha, Dr. Phil says, "You've made the decision here and you've allowed her to pursue this. The number one tool that parents need is to have a definition of success for their kids. One of the elements of that definition should be that you help them discover their authentic self. I commend you for two things. One, being sensitive to the fact that she could be in a compromising situation and keeping a very close eye on that as an attentive parent. And two, having the courage to let her pursue something, even though it's not what you would do in a million years."
He tells Olivia to go for it.
Should girls be allowed to wrestle?
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