{"id":9728,"date":"2025-10-14T20:05:41","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T20:05:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/onlinenews92.com\/?p=9728"},"modified":"2025-10-14T20:05:41","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T20:05:41","slug":"high-school-wrestler-forfeits-state-tournament-ends-his-career-after-seeing-his-opponent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/onlinenews92.com\/?p=9728","title":{"rendered":"High School Wrestler Forfeits State Tournament, Ends His Career After Seeing His Opponent"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"518\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/onlinenews92.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/IMG_5333.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-9729\" srcset=\"https:\/\/onlinenews92.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/IMG_5333.jpeg 518w, https:\/\/onlinenews92.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/IMG_5333-259x300.jpeg 259w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 518px) 100vw, 518px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>A Colorado high school wrestler made national headlines after choosing to forfeit two state tournament matches against female opponents, citing his religious and personal beliefs.Brendan Johnston, an 18-year-old senior from the Classical Academy in Colorado Springs, withdrew from his first-round match against Skyview High\u2019s Jaslynn Gallegos and later from his consolation match against Valley High\u2019s Angel Rios. His decisions effectively ended his high school wrestling career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Johnston, a devout Christian, explained that wrestling against female athletes conflicted with his values. \u201cIt\u2019s so physical, physically close. I don\u2019t think that\u2019s really appropriate with a young lady,\u201d he told KDVR. \u201cIt\u2019s also very aggressive, and I\u2019m not really comfortable with that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He clarified that his choice was not about inequality but about respecting differences between men and women. He emphasized that acknowledging those differences did not mean seeing women as lesser, but rather as deserving of respect in different ways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Johnston had never wrestled a female opponent since starting the sport in seventh grade. While wrestling is not officially sanctioned as a girls\u2019 sport in Colorado, he said he didn\u2019t want to disrespect the commitment of female wrestlers or engage in a match that made him uncomfortable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Meanwhile, both Angel Rios and Jaslynn Gallegos went on to make history, finishing fourth and fifth\u2014the first girls ever to place at the Colorado state wrestling tournament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Gallegos, who began wrestling at age five, expressed understanding of Johnston\u2019s stance. She said she viewed herself simply as a wrestler, not a \u201cgirl wrestler,\u201d and respected his right to follow his beliefs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The incident sparked national debate about sports, gender, and personal conviction\u2014highlighting the ongoing challenge of balancing respect for individual faith with the pursuit of equality in athletics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Colorado high school wrestler made national headlines after choosing to forfeit two state tournament matches against female opponents, citing his religious and personal beliefs.Brendan Johnston, an&#8230; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlinenews92.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlinenews92.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlinenews92.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlinenews92.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlinenews92.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9728"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/onlinenews92.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9728\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9730,"href":"https:\/\/onlinenews92.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9728\/revisions\/9730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlinenews92.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlinenews92.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlinenews92.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}