For years, expanding opportunities for female athletes was sometimes framed as a zero-sum game.
If there were more opportunities for women, it meant fewer opportunities for men.
Wrestling is proving something very different.
The explosive growth of girls' and women's wrestling isn't just changing women's sports. It's happening alongside one of the strongest periods of growth wrestling has experienced in decades.
More girls are wrestling. More boys are wrestling. More schools are offering the sport. More colleges are adding programs.
Women didn't take a bigger piece of the wrestling pie. They helped make the pie bigger.
The Numbers Tell the Story
Girls high school wrestling participation grew from 31,654 athletes in 2021–22 to 88,771 in 2025–26—an increase of roughly 180% in four years, according to the NFHS.
But here's the part we don't talk about enough:
Boys wrestling is growing too.
Boys high school wrestling participation jumped 10% in 2022–23, adding nearly 25,000 wrestlers.
By 2024–25, boys wrestling surpassed 300,000 participants for the first time.
Combined boys and girls participation reached 374,278 wrestlers—the highest total in the 56-year history of the NFHS participation survey.
At the same time women's wrestling has exploded, men's wrestling hasn't disappeared.
It has broken participation records of its own.
Women Are Helping Grow the Wrestling Ecosystem
We can't say that every new boy joined wrestling because girls started wrestling. There are many factors behind the sport's resurgence.
But it is increasingly difficult to separate the growth of women's wrestling from the overall health of wrestling.
In April 2026, USA Wrestling surpassed 374,000 members, setting its fourth consecutive all-time membership record. The organization specifically cited the continued growth of women's wrestling as one factor driving its expansion.
Because when you bring an entirely new population into a sport, you don't just gain athletes.
You gain families, fans, coaches, officials, clubs, tournaments and future wrestling parents.
Think about a family with a son and daughter.
Years ago, wrestling might have meant Dad taking his son to practice.
Today, both kids may wrestle. The entire family spends weekends at tournaments. They follow college wrestling. They join USA Wrestling. They travel to events. They buy wrestling gear.
Eventually, those athletes become coaches, officials, donors and parents of wrestlers themselves.
Wrestling didn't simply add female athletes. It dramatically expanded the number of young people who can look at a wrestling mat and think: "That's a sport for me."
Colleges Are Seeing the Opportunity
The collegiate landscape may provide the clearest example of this rising tide.
The National Wrestling Coaches Association says it has helped establish or reinstate more than 360 collegiate wrestling programs since 2000.
And increasingly, colleges aren't considering men's or women's wrestling.
They're thinking about wrestling.
In 2026, Wilberforce University and Hill College announced the addition of both men's and women's wrestling programs.
Juniata College went even further—reinstating its men's wrestling program while simultaneously launching women's wrestling.
That's an important story.
Women's wrestling isn't necessarily replacing men's opportunities.
In some cases, women's wrestling is emerging alongside new opportunities for men.
Women's wrestling also became the NCAA's 91st championship sport, culminating in the inaugural NCAA Women's Wrestling Championship in March 2026.
As more schools invest in wrestling rooms, coaches, recruiting, tournaments and athletes, the infrastructure surrounding the entire sport becomes stronger.
Making Room for Girls Made Wrestling Bigger
At Yes! In athletics, we've believed from the beginning that girls shouldn't have to squeeze themselves into a sport—or products—designed around boys.
But the growth of wrestling reveals an even bigger lesson.
Making room for girls never required pushing boys out.
We simply needed to make the room bigger.
And that's exactly what we're seeing.
More girls.
More boys.
More programs.
More families.
More opportunity.
Women's wrestling didn't take something away from wrestling.
Women helped grow wrestling.
And we may only be seeing the beginning.
Sources: National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS), USA Wrestling, National Wrestling Coaches Association (NWCA) and NCAA participation and program data.