While these girls may still look like pioneers at many of their matches, they actually reflect the growing popularity of wrestling as a girls’ sport. 自1994年以来，全国高中摔跤女生的数量从800多人增长到近11500人。

 

虽然为这些轻量级女孩找到常规赛是一项挑战，但她们三人都参加了2月份的马萨诸塞州青少年摔跤协会女子摔跤锦标赛，阿什维尼获得了第二名，安德里亚娜和克拉拉分别获得了第四和第五名。 “When they see other girls being successful, that’s really encouraging,” notes wrestling coach Eric Lane.

 

我们与安德里亚娜、克拉拉和阿什维尼坐下来，回顾了她们的这个赛季，是什么激励她们加入这个团队，以及男女同校摔跤的挑战。

 

安德里亚娜：一开始，我是唯一报名参加摔跤比赛的女孩，所以我说服了阿什维尼和克拉拉。

克拉拉：我们是最好的朋友，所以我同意试一试。

Ashwini: I watched this movie called Dangal, which is a true story about two girls who compete in wrestling and are really successful internationally. 它真的激励了我。 此外，我的姐姐总是比我强壮得多，所以我想增强我的力量。

 

克拉拉：我妈妈很震惊。 She was like, “Where did you get this idea?!”

阿什维尼：我父母非常鼓励我。 他们说我可以选择任何我想要的运动。

Andriana: I like to wrestle with some of my friends outside of school, so I guess my mom wasn’t too surprised.

 

安德里亚娜：一开始，我担心我们只会有摔跤的男孩，不过知道有多少女孩在玩摔跤真的很酷。 我们去参加了一场女子锦标赛，那里有很多其他女孩。

阿什维尼：比赛中有两个第二年摔跤的女孩，我打败了其中一个。 这是一场精彩的比赛，获胜的感觉真好！

克拉拉：刚开始练习真的很累，但是当我们开始练习的时候就变得很有趣了。 如果我们犯了错误，我们会努力改正，我们总是会互相教导。

 

阿什维尼：男孩们都很好。 My first match was the very first match of the season, and the boys were all yelling, “Go Ashwini!”

克拉拉：我们必须在练习中做侧手翻，这是我们的一项练习，我们会向男孩们展示我们的侧手翻。 They were like, “How do you do that?”

和她:…是啊，很多高中男生都有这个问题。

 

安德里亚娜：我学到的是，如果你们团结一致，就能完成很多事情，但同时也不要害怕尝试。 At first, we felt a little uncomfortable about wrestling the boys and stayed in our little corner wrestling each other, but as we got more comfortable we learned that it’s just what you do in wrestling.

Ashwini: Wrestling takes a lot of determination—the moves, the matches— and there’s a lot of pressure, but I learned that if you work hard, you can accomplish anything.

 

Andriana: I’m not sure who else will be doing it, but most likely I will.

Ashwini: I’m doing it!

Clara: I just hope that next year’s fifth graders enjoy wrestling like we did!