Throughout the past couple of years there has been a boom in girls wrestling and with the help of PAL (the Police Athletic League), Beat the Streets Philadelphia has continued that trend by committing to girls-specific programming. Ed Schneider, who has coached at PAL for over 30 years, had this to say about the future of girls wrestling,
"In the 1980s, it was extremely rare for a girl to participate in what has traditionally been a male-dominated sport. In the last 10 years, wrestling for women has expanded exponentially, with some states creating high school programs. And even within the past few years, opportunities for girls to receive college scholarships for wrestling has dramatically increased."
The womens' wrestling community is growing rapidly & with amazingly talented girls emerging around the nation, all signs indicate that women's wrestling is here to stay! One of those incredibly talented girls, Jasintai Mallqui, is this month's BTSP featured student-athlete!
Jasintai Mallqui, or just 'Tai' for short, is a wrestler who trains at the Rizzo PAL Center and Camden Panthers; among other clubs. Recently, Tai won a prestigious title in freestyle competing at 39kg at the UWW U15 World Championships in Budapest, Hungary. Most people only dream of wrestling at such a high level, let alone finding such a high level of success. An accomplishment of that magnitude at such a young age is truly remarkable. In addition to a world championship, Jasintai has many other accomplishments. In 2018, Tai was runner-up at the Novice Women's Freestyle Nationals and she won the title at the 2019 Women's USA Folkstyle Nationals. Tai is a leader in every sense of the word; exemplifying hard work, helping other wrestlers around her, and acutely focused throughout practice day in and day out. We reached out to Jasintai to ask her simply what she enjoys about the sport. Her answer was short, but sweet:
"I like everything about wrestling, it's fun and I like beating up boys. I get better at how to defend myself." – Jasintai Mallqui
As Tai continues to grow as a person and an athlete shes leading the way for younger girls to follow in her footsteps.
If you are interested in creating opportunities for other young wrestlers like Tai, you can visit our donate now page here.
BTSPhilly: Articles, Events, In Their Shoes, My Story
Eat Better, Live Better, Perform Better
Beat the Streets Philadelphia (BTSP) has always operated under the belief that our whole is greater than the sum of our parts. In that, working collectively with positive community partners to help benefit the youth of Philadelphia is the most effective method for accomplishing our mission. A great example of this stems from the combined…