It is happening again! A McBryde sister is being denied an opportunity she rightfully earned.
Jamilah McBryde, the oldest of the three McBryde Sisters who wrestle, is the reigning 143lb Women’s Freestyle NAIA National Champion. With that amazing accomplishment comes the opportunity to compete for a spot on the US Women’s Olympic Wrestling team. If allowed to attend the Olympic Qualifiers, Jamilah could be the first woman in the world to compete as a wrestler at the Olympic level in hijab. However, Jamilah is being denied the right to compete, and a McBryde sister is once again being robbed of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity - one that she fairly earned.
USA Wrestling has tried to place the blame for the denial entirely on UWW, stating that they have to abide by the rules as outlined by the international governing body, which is UWW (which supports the 2024 Olympic Wrestling). However, legal counsel informed the McBryde sisters that denying athletes the opportunity to compete in US-based athletic competition based on sincerely held religious beliefs is unconstitutional and illegal, and at the very least, they have to hold a fair hearing before denying Jamilah this opportunity.
This may all sound familiar… Well, this isn’t the first time this has happened.
Two years ago, Latifah McBryde, Jamliah’s younger sister, earned the right to represent the United States at the Pan-Am Championships in Mexico after placing 2nd at the USMC Women’s National and World Team Trials. Despite a petition with nearly 13,000, she was denied the opportunity to compete. Why? She needed to be allowed to compete in the Classic Wrestling uniform due to her sincerely held religious beliefs that required her to wrestle in a non-form-fitting uniform.
Not only was Latifah banned from competing at Pan-Ams, but they have banned her, Jamilah and their younger sister Zaynah, from competing at any international UWW-sanctioned event AND any USA Wrestling events that would be considered international qualifying events. This decision was made without due process and did not allow Latifah to plead her case through the proper channels. Latifah should have been granted the opportunity to petition for a formal review. She was never given that opportunity. She was simply told by UWW, “the uniform needs to be tested.” For over two years, Latifah and her sisters were never given clear guidance on how or when that testing would occur. Watch any of the McBryde sisters’ matches to see the uniform in action.
You can read more about Latifah’s experience here: https://www.change.org/p/urge-uww-to-let-latifah-wrestle
Since then, however, thanks to the efforts of Coach Carleen Sluberski, both the NAIA College division and the NCAA division added the Classic Wrestling uniform to their approved uniform list. With this amazing breakthrough, the three McBryde sisters were recruited to wrestle (in the Classic Wrestling uniform) at Life University, where they wrestled over 200 matches - winning over 85% of them. You would think 200+ college matches, some against the best that US college Women’s wrestling offers, would be enough of a test, but apparently not.
What does Jamilah have to say about all of this?
“One of the hardest things as an athlete is to try your hardest and still fail. Even harder is to not fail and still be denied the opportunity to succeed. The sacrifices and challenges throughout the journey are not only endured but embraced - all for the opportunity that every athlete dreams of — the opportunity to compete at the sport’s highest level. A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity fairly earned but unjustly ripped away. Being denied the right to compete is not only a loss for me but a loss for my family, my coaches, my teammates, and most of all, all female athletes around the world. Not only does it restrict current athletes from testing themselves against the best the world has to offer, but it destroys the hopes of young girls who dream of being future Olympians. The amount of untapped potential and greatness around the world may never be fully realized, and incredibly talented, hardworking female athletes may never get the opportunity to compete on the Olympic stage. The number of female athletes around the world who could be the very best international competitors the world has ever seen may be left sitting at home because of a lack of inclusion - we may never know.”
Beyond all of that, the actions displayed by USA Wrestling, UWW, and the US Olympic Committee go against the core values of wrestling, the core values of athleticism, the core values of Olympism, and even the core values apparently espoused by these organizations themselves - gender equality, inclusion, fairness and non-discrimination in sports as outlined by the IOC; integrity, excellence, respect, friendship, unity (Olympic Values); integrity, unity, resilience, growth of wrestling (UWW Mission); and integrity, honesty, responsibility, accountability, respect, and diversity (USA Wrestling Values).
So, how can you help?
Please share this petition far and wide. Share it with friends and family. Share it on social media. Tag news outlets and sports influencers. We want the world to know what UWW, USA Wrestling, and the US Olympic Committee are doing in 2024.Write to the following individuals and express how you feel about yet another amazing athlete being denied the opportunity of a lifetime that she fairly earned:
Kerry McCoy (USA Wrestling 1st Vice President) kmccoy3024@aol.com
Joan Fulp (USA Wrestling 2nd Vice President) joanfulp@gmail.com
Nenad Lalovic (UWW President and member of the IOC's Commission for Olympic Solidarity) nenad.lalovic@uww.org
Terry Steiner (head coach of USA's women's national team) tsteiner@usawrestling.org
Bruce Baumgartner (USA Wrestling President) bbaumgartner@usawrestling.org
Francisco Eduardo Lee Lopez (President of the Pan-American Council) francisco.lee@uww.org
Arsen Julfalakyan (UWW Athletes Commission Chairman) arsen.julfalakyan@uww.org
Stan Dziedzic (UWW VP and UWW. Coaches Commission President) stan.dziedzic@uww.org
Gene Sykes (US Olympics Board of Directors) gene.sykes@gs.com
Elizabeth Ramsey (US Olympics Athletes Advisory Council Executive Director) elizabeth.ramsey@teamusa-ac.org
Rich Bender (Executive Director of USA Wrestling and USOPC Board member) rbender@usawrestling.org
Jaimie McNab (USA Wrestling Senior Manager of Women’s Freestyle) jmcnab@usawrestling.org
Cody Bickley (Director of National Teams High Performance) cbickley@usawrestling.org14. genderequality@olympic.org
***Please note that all donations made on the Change.org platform go to Change.org to increase the number of views the petition gets. The money does not go to the petition creator or the individual the petition is in support of.
