THE ECHO

by Sophia Waggoner

I’m a girl who plays boys’ sports.

Though sports don’t have an official boys’ or girls’ label, as a woman, I participate in very masculine sports: I play rugby, wrestle, and throw shotput and discus on the track and field team, all very masculine sports. I don’t get constant judgment or hate from people on this, at least not that they verbalize, but there are small things that just serve as a reminder that people don’t think I’m as welcome on these teams as boys.

For example, my first year wrestling I was runner up at sectionals, in response many people justified my placement with the fact that girls wrestling is less competitive than boys, or how my grandparents don’t approve of me doing wrestling because it’s a boys’ sport, so they won’t come see me wrestle. However, they approve of the other sports I do, so they’ll come to watch me there. Or how even though my rugby team are the three-time state champions, for three years in a row, the title is belittled because people think it’s luck, and that we don’t work for it. I’ve even had someone tell the other girl wrestlers and myself to leave the wrestling room, because we don’t belong.

As an athlete I can confidently say, almost nothing is luck, it’s hard work, and tiring training, and demanding physical exercise, for girls just as it is for boys. I can also say that mine or any other girl’s success shouldn’t be disparaged in any sport because it’s new, or because we’re playing against other girls, or because of any other excuse someone can come up with to prove that they don’t like what I’m doing.

These small reminders and many, many more have been shoved in mine and other girls’ faces, with what purpose I’m not quite sure, but I am sure of one thing: there is nothing wrong with women being in these sports, and if anything, we need more of them. This bias that girls can’t participate or aren’t welcome in these areas needs to be stopped, because we are more than just girls, we are athletes, and we deserve to be here just as much as anyone else.