A wrestler forfeited a game so he wouldn't have to compete against a girl. Now she's clapping back in the most epic way.
The United States has 16,562 female high school wrestlers, however only 12 states have girls’ wrestling programs with state championships.
This year, Colorado piloted a program giving female wrestlers their own bracket.
Girls are starting to get more opportunities to wrestle, however many female wrestlers still find themselves fighting against a stigma. When Jaslynn Gallegos and Angel Rios opted to compete with the boys in the state championship, one of the boys declined to compete with them.
Now, Gallegos has a to-the-point message for all the boys who are reluctant to get into the ring with her, "Just wrestle me."
High school senior Brendan Johnston forfeited a match during the Colorado state wrestling championships so he wouldn’t have to spar with Gallegos and Rios.
Johnston knew that Rios was a good wrestler who has ambitions to go to the Olympics. But the 106-pound Johnston chose to opt out of his match with her not because he was intimidated by her skill, but because he “wasn’t comfortable” with fighting a girl.
“I’m not really comfortable with a couple of things with wrestling a girl. The physical contact, there’s a lot of it in wrestling,” Johnston told the Denver Post. “And I guess the physical aggression, too. I don’t want to treat a young lady like that on the mat. Or off the mat. And not to disrespect the heart or the effort that she’s put in. That’s not what I want to do, either.”
Johnston’s decision to forfeit his matches against Gallegos and Rios effectively eliminated him from the championships.
Johnston feels like he’s doing the right thing, and he certainly framed his argument in a sympathetic and decent way but Gallegos says that's not the point.
Gallegos told NPR she respects but doesn’t understand his decision.
Gallegos, who has been wrestling since she was five, was cheated out of a match because of her gender. Gallegos doesn’t want to be treated differently as a wrestler because she happens to be female. “I just want to be a wrestler, not necessarily defined as a girl wrestler, so it kind of hurt me a little bit,” Gallegos told NPR. “I just want to be this wrestler and my gender is holding me back.”
Gallegos also stated that that male wrestlers shouldn’t worry about #MeToo accusations after wrestling a girl. “It’s kind of unheard of in the wrestling community for a girl to say something happened during a match,” Gallegos said. “It’s wrestling and I think we all understand that it’s a very physical sport. You’re literally fighting someone to put them to their back.”
Check out this interview of Gallegos describing a tournament victory in 2017.
Gallegos ended up placing fifth in the competition, while Rios placed fourth, marking the first time a female wrestler has placed at a state level.
Gallegos says she plans on wrestling in college, but there she will wrestle mostly women.
Are girls really getting the opportunity to wrestle if boys refuse to wrestle them? As more girls take an interest in the sport of wrestling, they shouldn’t be treated differently because of their gender. To paraphrase Gallegos, just wrestle them.
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There's a reason why some people can perfectly copy accents, and others can't
Turns out, there's a neurodivergent link.
A woman in black long sleeve shirt stands in front of mirror.
Have you ever had that friend who goes on vacation for four days to London and comes back with a full-on Queen's English posh accent? "Oooh I left my brolly in the loo," they say, and you respond, "But you're from Colorado!" Well, there are reasons they (and many of us) do that, and usually it's on a pretty subconscious level.
It's called "accent mirroring," and it's actually quite common with people who are neurodivergent, particularly those with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). According Neurolaunch, the self-described "Free Mental Health Library," "Accent mirroring, also known as accent adaptation or phonetic convergence, is the tendency to unconsciously adopt the accent or speech patterns of those around us. This linguistic chameleon effect is not unique to individuals with ADHD, but it appears to be more pronounced and frequent in this population."
Essentially, when people have conversations, we're constantly "scanning" for information—not just the words we're absorbing, but the inflection and tone. "When we hear an accent, our brains automatically analyze and categorize the phonetic features, prosody, and intonation patterns," writes Neurolaunch. For most, this does result in copying the accent of the person with whom we're speaking. But those with ADHD might be more sensitive to auditory cues. This, "coupled with a reduced ability to filter out or inhibit the impulse to mimic…could potentially explain the increased tendency for accent mirroring."
While the article explains further research is needed, they distinctly state that, "Accent mirroring in individuals with ADHD often manifests as an unconscious mimicry of accents in social situations. This can range from subtle shifts in pronunciation to more noticeable changes in intonation and speech rhythm. For example, a person with ADHD might find themselves unconsciously adopting a Southern drawl when conversing with someone from Texas, even if they’ve never lived in the South themselves."
People are having their say online. On the subreddit r/ADHDWomen, a thread began: "Taking on accents is an ADHD thing?" The OP shares, "My whole life, I've picked up accents. I, myself, never noticed, but everyone around me would be like, 'Why are you talking like that??' It could be after I watched a show or movie with an accent or after I've traveled somewhere with a different accent than my 'normal.'
They continue, "Apparently, I pick it up fast, but it fades out slowly. Today... I'm scrolling Instagram, I watch a reel from a comedian couple (Darcy and Jeremy. IYKYK) about how Darcy (ADHD) picks up accents everywhere they go. It's called ADHD Mirroring??? And it's another way of masking."
(The OP is referring to Darcy Michaels and his husband Jeremy Baer, who are both touring comedians based in Canada.)
Hundreds of people on the Reddit thread alone seem to relate. One comments, "Omfg I've done this my whole life; I'll even pick up on the pauses/spaces when I'm talking to someone who is ESL—but English is my first language lol."
Sometimes, it can be a real issue for those around the chameleon. "I accidentally mimicked a waitress's weird laugh one time. As soon as she was out of earshot, my family started to reprimand me, but I was already like 'oh my god I don’t know why I did that, I feel so bad.'"
Many commenters on TikTok were shocked to find out this can be a sign of ADHD. One jokes, "Omg, yes, at a store the cashier was talking to me and she was French. She's like 'Oh are you French too? No, I'm not lol. I'm very east coast Canada."
And some people just embrace it and make it work for them. "I mirror their words or phrase! I’m 30. I realized I start calling everyone sweetie cause my manager does & I work at coffee shop."