Women's Rugby RE European Trophy 2019 - 2020 (Week 5)

Federica Brignone with her new boyfriend   https://www.gazzetta.it/gossip/21-04-2026/federica-brignone-prima-uscita-pubblica-a-madrid-con-il-fidanzato-james-mbaye.shtml?intcmp=leggianche_free

Wrestling in the USA is strong thanks to its universities, but surprisingly, they are not very strong in judo. I wonder why?

Women's wrestling has been at the Olympics for first time in 2004, just like women`s boxing, so it used to be a men's sport on the all world, maybe without Japan. But Russia retains the culture of the former USSR, where women could always participate in almost all sports, unlike Iran under the ayatollahs, etc Sure, Russia has its various Islamic republics: Dagestan, Chechnya- but the 50 years of the USSR and its ideas and propagandas about life and sport still had a significant impact for people. However, the cradle of women's wrestling is and always has been Japan-, but judo has probably always been more popular there, so I'm sure a lot of talented girls go there, not wrestling.

Russia was never a super power in women's wrestling, they are just another decent team.   why ? that's simple. most of top Russian freestyle wrestlers are from Dagestan. probably 7-8 from the current team in Albania. and I assume in that region women are not encouraged to take this sport. if you remove Dagestan from Russia, their men's freestyle team will do more or less the same.   I'm not familiar with the Russian culture in general but I assume even nation-wide (and not only Dagestan) this is considered the men's sport.    of course in the World Championship those 3 teams you mentioned can go toe to toe with Russia or even do better. from this Russian team I only see Sadulaev to win the gold at worlds. (+ Sidakov if he returns and maybe Uguev depending on Japan's squad )   still the depth of Russian freestyle is unmatched. they can send their #5 guy and be still competitive for a top 6 finish, can't say the same about any other team.

In the women's, however, Russia took a strong beating from Ukraine, but surely there wasn't a all top-tier Russian girls here? Judo, in my opinion, is developing better and more countries are at the leading countries, than wrestling. Situation is slightly better in the world than in Europe, because we do have the USA, Japan and Iran. Unfortunately in Europe, this sport is a joke and is becoming a second table tennis, where people from other countries are naturalized and win medals for others, even though they have nothing in common with them.