Olympic spotlight spikes interest in women’s sports

By Brad Ziegler

As the games of the 33rd Olympiad wound down, excitement among sports fans was continuing to ramp up, especially among young fans who were inspired by the performance by the athletes representing the United States and other countries.

This year’s games showcased successful performances by US athletes in many well-established sports such as gymnastics and track and field, as well as a number of successes in more recently established sports, such as women’s rugby and women’s wrestling, and these performances caught the eye of lots of potential future competitors.

In one of the most exciting moments of the games, the US women’s rugby team captured their first Olympic medal when Alex Sedrick caught a pass with eight seconds left in the bronze medal match against Australia and ran the length of the pitch to tie the match. Sedrick then converted the kick to send the Americans to their first ever medal win.

The upset, and the excitement that followed it, has helped to fuel a surge in interest in women’s rugby in the US, and local women’s rugby enthusiasts are also seeing the benefit from such enthusiasm as Kansas City’s women’s teams kick off their 2024 fall season. The Kansas City Jazz women’s rugby team is a Division 2 professional women’s rugby team that has been a part of the Kansas City rugby community since 1993. They began practicing at Macken Park in North Kansas City last week and will kick off their fall season with a home match on September 7 at Hodge Park.

Bobbi Henson, the Vice President of the Jazz, reports that there has been more interest from prospective players and fans following the Olympics and that the accessibility of the sport makes it easy to turn their interest into participation. “Rugby is really for everybody, whether you are fast, you are strong, or if you are just excited about learning about the sport,” she said. “We welcome those who are new to the sport as well as those who have played in the past and whose passion for the sport has recently become rekindled.”

The Kansas City Patriots is another area women’s team that plays their matches at Wyandotte County Park, and they will also begin their Fall season in September. Additionally, there are high school girls’ teams in several parts of the metropolitan area under the umbrella of KC United, a team that has been developing female rugby players for nearly a decade. Many of these girls have also been able to participate in the growing number of collegiate women’s rugby programs upon graduation.

Women’s wrestling began in the Olympics in 2004 and the exposure that the Olympics gave to the sport has played a key role in its dramatic growth since then through youth leagues and ultimately, through high school and college teams. The US women’s wrestling team had its most successful Olympic games in history last month, winning two gold medals, a silver medal and a bronze medal. It was only the second time that any country had won more than one gold medal in an Olympic games, and the future for the US team looks bright as two of the medalists, Amit Elor and Kennedy Blades, are only 20 years old.

Greg Linhart is the girls wrestling coach at Belton High School and the Mo West Championship Wrestling Club and says that the girls he coaches idolize the Olympic wrestlers, many of whom are only a few years older than they are. “Seeing the USA women’s wrestling team have such great success is only going to continue to grow the sport of wrestling,” he said. “The more positive role models teenage girls can have in their life the better…and who better to idolize than Olympic champions and medalists!”

Nearly five million kids of all ages are involved in gymnastics in the United States, due in large part to the long history of success that US gymnasts have achieved over the last 50+ years.

Kim Fuchs, who has been involved with developing area gymnasts for more than three decades through her Martin City gym, Eagles Gymnastics, and more recently through her current venture, KF Sports Unlimited, has seen bumps in involvement in the sport over the last several Olympic cycles. “We are seeing wait lists forming at gyms throughout the area as interest in the sport is running high once again,” she said. “The challenge that the gyms now face is finding adequate staffing to accommodate the demand.”

Fuchs said that the rise of other competitive girls’ sports like cheer, track and field and wrestling has also been aided by girls participating in gymnastics at a younger age and learning about strength training, balance and acrobatics. “Whether they are pole vaulting or vaulting down the court, some girls just love to fly in the air, and gymnastics is a great way to learn how to do that safely and successfully.”