Senegal Olympic Wrestling Champ Sambou Empowers Women, Breaks Gender Norms

TaiwanPlus News

A former Olympic athlete and African Wrestling Championships titleholder, Isabelle Sambou, has returned to her hometown in rural Senegal to train a new generation of female champions.

Transcript

00:00Isabel Sambu's village of Malump is a long way from London and even farther from Rio de Janeiro,

00:05cities she visited as part of Senegal's Olympic team.

00:09Eight years after leaving her shoes on the mat, the 43-year-old nine-time African wrestling champion

00:15is teaching women to grapple in her hometown.

00:25In Senegal, boys across the country wrestle on the beaches or on empty lots,

00:29and in the cities, male champs brawl and sprawl in front of thousands of spectators.

00:34But the sport remains off-limits for women, except for in Casamance region,

00:38where Isabel Sambu is from, home to the Hola ethnic group, where women clinch alongside the men.

00:59They weren't laughing when Isabel carried the flag for Senegal at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.

01:08Although she didn't win any medals in her bout, now that she's retired,

01:12she's determined to train someone who will.

01:30Sambu now spends her time between the Senegalese capital, Dakar,

01:35and her hometown coaching wrestling.

01:37And most of the teenage students on the sandy ground are girls.

01:41Among them is 18-year-old Mami Marie Sambu.

01:44She's not related to Isabel, but shares her name and love of the sport.

01:59When I started wrestling, people said they'd never seen a girl wrestle.

02:04But I've never listened to them, because if I did, I wouldn't even be here.

02:13Following in Isabel's footsteps, tomorrow's champions will continue to represent Senegal,

02:18breaking gender norms and guarding village traditions.

02:21Scott Huang and Bryn Thomas for Taiwan Plus.

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