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MADISON, Wisc. -- UW-Madison freshman wrestler Jennifer Wong is already in the biggest match of her college career. Citing broken promises, she is threatening to take the university to the mat if she is not given the opportunity to compete with the Badger men's wrestling team.
Wong said she chose to attend UW-Madison this fall after being promised the chance to try out for the men's wrestling team.
According to Wong, a member of the Wisconsin wrestling coaching staff said if she "had the skill and the commitment that there was no reason she couldn't participate."
But before the season began, Wong said she received a one-paragraph letter from the university telling her that according to policy, she was not allowed to try out for the men's team.
"I just want to be competitive," Wong said. "In order to be the best I have to compete with the best, and that is what I am trying to do."
After receiving the letter, Wong and her parents contacted the university and then a lawyer, Victor Arellano, who helped her file a notice of claim, which must be filed before someone can file a lawsuit.
The state attorney general's office responded with a letter supporting Wong's right to try out.
"You're not going to beat her up, you're going to compete."
-- Victor Arellano
Wong wrestled throughout high school on the men's team with a .500 record her senior year while winning two national women's championships, and last year she traveled to Romania with the U.S. Women's World Wrestling Team.
Doug Reese, Wong's coach for the world team and current women's wrestling coach at the University of Minnesota-Morris, said despite her accomplishments, Wong is not qualified for the men's team.
"For me it's a joke," Reese said. "No person that goes .500 their senior year would ever make the Badger squad. [The male wrestlers] are all state-level champions."
Reese said Wong should start a women's wrestling club, rather than force her way onto the men's team through the courts.
While pushing the university using a constitutional basis of equal protection instead of Title IX, Arellano said the university should allow women to develop their skills in men's sports.
"You're not going to beat her up, you're going to compete," Arellano said. "It used to be black vs. white, but things change. Now we don't even look at that."
According to the state attorney general's letter, UW-Madison has agreed to allow Wong to try out, granting her an extra week before her wrestle-off, when she will compete for a spot on the team, to compensate for the practice she has missed.
UW Athletics Director Pat Richter said in a press release that the team is dedicated to giving Wong a fair chance.
"We welcome Jennifer as an outstanding student-athlete and we wish her the best," he said.
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University of Wisconsin Breaks Promise to Allow Female Wrestler to Participate Fully in Men's Wrestling Program
October 7, 1999
Trial Lawyers for Public Justice (TLPJ) announced today that it would sue the University of Wisconsin (Madison) next week unless the school keeps its word to a world-class female wrestler who enrolled at the University only after being promised that she would be allowed to participate in the school's previously all-male intercollegiate wrestling program. Jennifer Wong, a freshman at the University and a member of the U.S. junior women's world team, enrolled at the University based on the promise that she would be allowed to participate on the men's wrestling team. A few weeks before enrollment, and after Ms. Wong had declined offers of admission from other interested schools, the University broke its word.
First, University officials said that women would not be allowed to participate in the intercollegiate wrestling program at all. Then, when Ms. Wong threatened legal action, the school changed its position, saying that it had decided to limit the size of the wrestling team and that Ms. Wong could try out, but would not be permitted to participate if she was not selected after the try-out period. TLPJ has informed the University that it will file suit on Ms. Wong's behalf next week unless the school keeps its word and allows Ms. Wong to participate, as all interested men were allowed to do until this year.
"We are willing to go to the mat to force the University of Wisconsin to keep its promise," said TLPJ's lead attorney Victor Arellano of Madison's Lawton & Cates. "The school's word should be its bond. The University should not discriminate and should allow Jennifer Wong to participate fully in the school's wrestling program – as it previously promised she could. "
Jennifer Wong is an 18-year-old wrestler who has won two national championships in women's wrestling and has wrestled as a member of the U.S. junior women's world team for the last two years. In a recent international competition, she finished sixth in the world among junior women wrestlers in her weight class. During her senior year of high school, she had a .500 record in varsity competition against boys.
Ms. Wong chose to attend the University of Wisconsin, in part, because school officials promised her that she would be permitted to participate in the men's wrestling program. (There is no women's wrestling team at the University.) In addition to Wisconsin, Ms. Wong was considering attending Northwestern University, where she also expected to participate in the men's wrestling program. Before accepting the University of Wisconsin's offer of admission, Ms. Wong met with the University's wrestling coach, who assured her that she would be permitted to join the team. Based on his representations, Ms. Wong turned down turned down her offer of admission from Northwestern University and accepted the offer of admission from the University of Wisconsin.
In late July, less than a month before the beginning of freshman orientation at the University of Wisconsin, Ms. Wong received a letter from the University stating – contrary to its prior representations – that she would not be permitted to participate in the wrestling program. In subsequent conversations with University officials, she was informed that the University had a policy against allowing female students to participate in the program. Then, after Ms. Wong threatened suit, the school said it had adopted a new policy placing limits – for the first time ever – on the size of the wrestling team. School officials said Ms. Wong could try out for the team but that she would not be permitted to participate if she was not selected to be a member of the team after the try-out period. Adding insult to injury, University officials said they were limiting the size of the wrestling team to try to bring the proportion of male athletes closer to the proportion of female athletes, in an effort to comply with Title IX. Obviously, that reasoning cannot justify the exclusion of Ms. Wong.
"The University's attempts to exclude women from its wrestling program and its treatment of Jennifer Wong, in particular, are patently unfair and illegal," said Anne Bloom, a Staff Attorney at Trial Lawyers for Public Justice. "We hope the University will reverse its decision and allow Jennifer Wong to continue to develop her abilities as one of the nation's top female wrestlers."
Ms. Wong and her mother contacted TLPJ because of its past successes in representing other female athletes with sex discrimination claims against West Point, Brown University and other schools. Under U.S. Supreme Court precedent, including the 1996 decision invalidating Virginia Military Institute's males-only admissions policy, public educational institutions can only exclude females from programs if they have an "exceedingly persuasive justification" for doing so and the exclusion is "substantially related" to the achievement of an "important governmental objective." TLPJ believes that Ms. Wong's exclusion from the University's wrestling team cannot satisfy this test and that the school's promises to Ms. Wong were legally binding.
In addition to Arellano and Bloom, TLPJ's legal team included Bruce Davey of Lawton & Cates in Madison, Wisconsin and TLPJ Staff Attorney Leslie Brueckner.
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