The world of women’s wrestling has shifted to a new relationship between collegiate athletes competing for their respective schools and global competitions that fall on the grander scale of the sport.
For third-year Kylie Welker, her goal was always to compete at the highest level of wrestling, and the Iowa program has offered her the best chance at achieving that goal. Once head coach Clarissa Chun heard about Welker’s goals, she knew that she needed to provide that competitive balance for her young star.
“That is something I wanted to support was their aspirations towards that,” Chun said. “I don’t ever want to hold anyone back from opportunities that give them great experience for the bigger picture of World and Olympic medals.”
These days, certain athletes like Welker are met with opportunities to train and gather knowledge from other well-known international figures during the season. This creates an obvious conflict of interest between focusing on both the collegiate and international levels of competition.
Chun’s method for dealing with this schedule sounds great on paper. She and the other wrestlers will gather before the season to see any potential conflicts with the college and international schedules.
“We look at the schedule as a whole, putting the collegiate schedule next to the international schedule and what makes sense as far as which competitions to target or opportunities presented to them,” Chun said.
This level of flexibility appealed immediately to not only Welker, but to the other international competitors on the roster like Kennedy Blades and Macey Kilty. Chun and her coaching staff are willing to flex the roster for athletes to attend certain international opportunities that come their way, and it’s one of the main reasons why wrestlers are drawn to the program.
“That’s what I like about Iowa and the coaching staff we have here,” Welker said. “It’s kind of a no-brainer to go after those types of things where you’re not just trying to win college titles but also world and Olympic titles. Their actions definitely back that up and they stand for it.”
Though the competitions are fun, there is one thing that each of these athletes have to keep in the back of their mind every time they step on the mat – school. Fitting in an academic schedule in college is never easy, but throwing a college-level education on top of wrestling can often be overwhelming for the young grapplers.
“It’s definitely really hard with school,” Welker said. “All of my trips end up being at the beginning of the semester, so I miss a lot of the base information which is really hard.”
While the continuous leap may seem strenuous, the wrestlers benefit from competing in the same style. Since the installment of the Iowa program in 2021, both college and international competitions have been held under freestyle rules, allowing for a smooth transition between the two events.
Instead of changing wrestling styles and techniques that depend on the situation, Welker and other world competitors can knock out two birds with one stone.
“The benefit of where women’s wrestling is at is that we wrestle freestyle both collegiately and internationally,” Chun said. “To best prepare them for world events come spring and summer, it’s to have them be able to have those experiences and competitions internationally.”