Girls wrestling is currently the fastest-growing sport in the nation.
What was once considered a boys sport is now catching the attention of young women as a sport that builds discipline, mental strength and physical power.
The National Federation of State High School Associations reported that in the 2024-25 school year, more than 74,000 girls participated in high school wrestling nationwide. Just a decade earlier, that number was below 12,000.
At the David M. Kennedy Center for International Studies on Feb. 25, Sarah M. Coyne, a human development professor at Brigham Young University, presented what she believes to be the first qualitative study focused on adolescent female wrestlers. Her research examined body image and empowerment in adolescent female wrestlers.
When Coyne stepped to the podium to present her research, she admitted that she never planned to study girls’ wrestling.
What began as a mother watching her daughter join a fledgling girls wrestling team turned into a study that challenges the assumptions about girls wrestling and its impact on body image, femininity and female empowerment.
“During the high-risk, adolescent years, wrestling can be protective for girls’ body image and mental health, but its effects depend on the surrounding sport culture,” Coyne said.
Her findings suggest that participation in wrestling can reshape how young girls see themselves physically.
“Wrestling can potentially shift body image from thinness-oriented to strength-oriented,” Coyne said. “We want to emphasize performance over weight.”
In a sport built around weight classes and physical contact, a shift focusing on strength can be significant.
“Wrestling has a big push on the fact that muscles are feminine too,” Coyne said.
Coyne said redefining femininity was one of the most striking themes to emerge from her interviews.
The girls Coyne spoke with shared that they learned femininity doesn’t have to be one thing. Wrestling expanded their sense of femininity and expressed pride in their strength and growing self-confidence.
“This expanded view of what femininity is and the psychological strength of knowing I can do hard things leads to this feeling of embodied empowerment,” Coyne said. “We see this on the mat and in other areas in life that will hopefully have a positive effect for years to come.”
For many female wrestlers, Coyne’s findings reflect their own experiences.
Maura Hart, the 2019 Tennessee girls’ 140-pound state champion, found that the mat was the ultimate proving ground for grit.
“Wrestling was such a positive experience for me,” Hart said. “It taught me how to work harder than I ever had to work before. It taught me that a lot of my perceived limits were purely mental.”
Amaya Kano, who began wrestling in kindergarten, said the growth of wrestling as a female sport was transformative.
“I wrestled against boys at the time because girls’ wrestling was not a thing when I was younger,” Kano said. “So when my high school got a girls’ wrestling team, I got back into wrestling.”
She said that at first, other girls were hesitant to join because they thought wrestling was too violent or didn’t like the stereotype that it was a boys’ sport.
Kano said that once the wrestling team became sanctioned, girls felt more encouraged to join.
“That really boosted it because we were actually wrestling against girls,” Kano said.
Kano said wrestling developed her mental strength and gave her a strong community.
“Wrestling gives you a lot of discipline and motivation … and it is a really inviting community,” Kano said. “Every wrestler I’ve met is loving and wants the best for you.”
Coyne emphasized that the difference between empowerment and harm often comes down to coaches and team culture.
Many female wrestlers have found the empowerment described in Coyne’s research. However, Coyne emphasized that the athletes who reported the healthiest experiences described coaches focused on strength, skill development, hard work and building the athletes up.
Hart echoed the importance of strong leadership, crediting her coach with shaping her experience in the sport.
“My biggest supporter was my coach, who always expected the best from me,” Hart said. “I would give him all the credit for the positive experiences I had wrestling and for my state championship.”
As more schools add sanctioned programs and research continues to highlight the benefits of the sport, the rise of girls wrestling appears to be more than a trend. It is a powerful shift in how young women view their own strength.