The Angel City Grand Prix saw a record participation of female wrestlers and is a testament to Beat the Streets Los Angeles’ (BTSLA) unwavering commitment to providing more access for girls in the sport.
The all-girls freestyle tournament has evolved into a premiere event hosted annually by BTSLA since 2014. The latest edition on April 14 in Walnut, California, welcomed a record-breaking 273 participants, a leap from 225 in 2023.
Wrestlers competed across Under-8, 10, 12 and 14; as well as cadet and junior divisions at Mt. San Antonio College’s state-of-the-art facilities. It’s come a long way since the inaugural tournament that had three divisions hosted at a high school gymnasium.
Though the Angel City Grand Prix went on a three-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it still has progressively grown and is what made this year’s turnout even more impressive.
“We launched the tournament in 2014 to provide a distinctive opportunity for girls in our programs and for the Greater Los Angeles community,” said BTSLA Executive Director Yero Washington. “At that time, there were few girls-only wrestling tournaments in this area. So we took the initiative to create this event, along with organizing other types of girls’ and women’s wrestling events in the LA area over the years.”
“We’ve hosted the event for close to a decade now and we’re building momentum,” added Washington. “I also think the fast moving growth of girls wrestling has played a role.”
Beat the Streets LA is on its third year as a grantee partner of Play Academy with Naomi Osaka. Since its inception in 2012, BTSLA has stayed on course in its mission to empower and transform the lives of youth through wrestling. It provides afterschool and community wrestling programming in 19 schools throughout Greater LA and offers other programs such as Tomorrow’s Leaders to help its high schoolers develop off the mats.
Despite the growth of the tournament and program itself, Washington would like to see a gender balance across BTSLA participation, with only 30 percent of participants being girls. A former wrestler and coach himself, Washington knows the appetite for girls wrestling is there. There just haven’t been many opportunities in a male-dominated sport.
Women’s freestyle wrestling made its Olympic debut at Athens 2004. At the collegiate level, only men’s wrestling is an official NCAA championships sport. But that may change as the women’s equivalent is projected to be added in 2026, the NCAA announced.
“Our overall goals are to continue to create access and opportunities to participate in the sport of wrestling, especially for those who are the most underrepresented, underserved, and under-resourced, with a continued focus on helping to grow girls’ and women’s wrestling,” Washington said.
