Romanel-sur-Lausanne (Switzerland) (AFP) – Wearing belted breeches and tussling in front of the crowd, women are increasingly taking part in Swiss wrestling, or schwingen. “It’s a man’s world, there’s no doubt about it” says Bob Blanchette, a judge at a schwingen festival in Romanel-sur-Lausanne, “but there’s no reason that women can’t participate in it”. Across the Alpine country, around 6,000 men are registered at formal schwingen clubs, compared with just 200 women and girls. Despite this disparity, Franziska Ruch, herself a wrestler, believes “it’s growing.”
