Adeline Gray is a first-time gold medalist in wrestling who has made it to Rio Olympics 2016 but Gray wants people to respect and acknowledge her as a wrestler and not just another pretty girl making it to the top.
The 25-year-old athlete sat down with ESPN for the magazine’s Body Issue, which hits newsstands July 8, to talk about wrestling, her unstoppable work ethic and her upcoming Olympic debut in Rio this summer.
“Women’s wrestling is a great sport that a lot of people don’t know about. I still get that sideways tilt of the head, like a puppy is looking at me: ‘Women wrestle?’” Gray toldESPN. “It’s almost disheartening, because I work very hard and it’s a very competitive field internationally, and people in our country just don’t really know about it.”
Standing at 5’10” and weighing in at 165 pounds, Gray is all muscle in her ESPN Body Issue shoot. The 25-year-old, however, says people expect more of a “Helga type of women,” who’s “obese and going out there on the mat to try to smash people’s heads.”
“It’s so much more than that,” Gray noted. “The weight is really low, so it’s about technique. It’s skill, strength, power and executing that in a very precise way.
Gray wants to set an example for young girls who have preconceived notions about women wrestlers. Her message for them is, “I tell them you can have the best of both worlds. You are allowed to be a female and be considered beautiful and still be an athlete and still be badass in that realm.”
In the evocative interview, she also highlights the general mindset of people towards women’s wrestling which they tend to treat as a sport from another planet. She is shocked because she still gets that “sideways tilt of the head” by people who ask “Women wrestle?”. “It’s almost disheartening, because I work very hard and it’s a very competitive field internationally, and people in our country just don’t really know about it.”
Highlighting the issue of lack of opportunities for women wrestlers, she says “Boys really have a leg up on us because they have these professional leagues that they can dream about. So if I can be like Serena Williams or like some of these main stars out there who are being iconic and groundbreaking and are role models for this next generation, it would be an honor and a blessing.”
