An Iowa family is calling foul on a decision made by USA Wrestling for this weekend’s 2025 Iowa/USA Wrestling Kids State Folkstyle Championships held in Cedar Rapids.
The situation involves the girls’ division at 115 for third- and fourth-grade competitors. Just two wrestlers registered for the division, but just one is an actual female. The other is a boy who identifies as a girl, according to the family of the female registered for the weight class.
The family has been told girls were not registering for the event because they didn’t want to compete against the boy. The family said they reached out to USA Wrestling and while the bylaws state girls will wrestle girls and boys will wrestle boys, there is a clause that allows competitors to wrestle based on their so-called “gender identity” until they hit puberty.
The transgender individual has reportedly wrestled against boys for years and has a very successful record against male competitors.
“He could really hurt a girl with his size and strength,” the family told The Iowa Standard. “As we all know, puberty or not, males are biologically stronger than females.”
The Iowa Standard attempted to contact USA Wrestling as well as the tournament director, a person called Mike Collera. Neither party responded to The Iowa Standard’s inquiry as of late Friday night.
According to the family, Collera said USA Wrestling is allowing the boy to wrestle as a girl. USA Wrestling allegedly confirmed on Friday the policy would stay the same for this weekend’s event despite being asked to reconsider.
Ironically, the family asked if their daughter could move up to the fifth- and sixth-grade division but were told that would be too dangerous.
According to the flyer for the tournament, rule eight states:
Girls must wrestle in girls’ divisions and boys must wrestle in boys’ divisions.
According to the family, their daughter plans to forfeit her match against the boy.
“She said she just wants to see the right thing happen to protect girls wrestling,” the family said. “She said she will stand up for her teammates and all the girl wrestlers across the world.”
The father, who also helps coach, said as a coach he is worried about girls who are considering wrestling being scared away by this movement.
“As a father, I am concerned about her future not only in wrestling but her safety as an adult,” he said. “I about her kids someday and then their kids in the future. We have been fighting for women’s rights for how many years and it bothers me that this new woke agenda believes they deserve the priority.”
While Iowa passed a law to “protect girls’ sports,” it only applies to some sports and some teams. The law applies at the high school and college level and only to in-state teams. So high school and college teams from out-of-state are welcome to compete in women’s sports in Iowa with men on their teams.
