ThoseWomen and traditions –“We are not just brutes and feminists”
The queen of the struggle that is Lucernoise Isabel Egli is determined to change mentalities on her sport. We give him speech here for a long time.

Posted today at 1:59 p.m.

Isabel Egli carries the traditional outfit of alpine discipline: jute panties and edelweiss shirt.
NIK HUNGER
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“Women don’t fight!” How many times have I heard this sentence? Everywhere, except in our family. We, the Egli of Steinhuserberg (LU), have the fight in the blood. My father was wrestling, my brothers too. My mother practiced discipline, and my older sister continues. Man or woman, it doesn’t matter. The main thing is to be in contact with sawdust.
I wore my first jute panties at the age of 5. I immediately knew it was my sport.
In traditional circles, prejudices with regard to female struggle are very widespread. For them, we are androgyns, brutes, feminists, but certainly not sportsmen to take seriously. However, this national sport has developed enormously in recent years. But the path is still long to match the level and recognition of our male colleagues.
By attending a fight between the two giants Joel Wicki (LU) and Samuel Giger (AI), we tend to see the fight as a primitive sport. Women compete differently from men, favoring technique.
I am the daughter of a peasant, going there does not scare me
I train up to five times a week, in the weight room and in a wrestling room. I go there, it doesn’t scare me. The fact that I am a peasant’s daughter certainly has something to do with it. We were six brothers and sisters. We had to lend a hand to the farm from a very young age. As soon as we had free time, make way for wrestling! Sister Counter Sister, brother against brother, brother counter sister.
I have never been afraid to face men, even if they strive to grab the famous panties hard and to make me switch without ever letting go. I like to team up with a man. These mixed training sessions motivate me to look for new catches that I can then use in competition against opponents allegedly stronger than me: with my 1.72 meters and my 74 kilos, I am one of the small templates.
Many of my male colleagues reduce their workload during their career in order to recover after an exhausting weekend. I won the prestigious queen title, but I want to be 100% in my work. I start every Monday at 7 am at the Help and Home Care Service Spitex in Willisau (LU). Even if I have groveling pain on the back and burning sensations in the muscular level, I prefer to go to work rather than stay at home to do nothing and complain.
My work makes me put into perspective. I rub shoulders with both seniors and younger people who have no longer to live. Palliative care anxious me at the start. These women and men are entitled to an end of life worthy, well surrounded. I always try to see the good side of things. I need it to be well in my sneakers, whether as a team of somatic care or as a wrestler in a ring.
Women still do not have the right to participate in the Federal Watch Festival
But in this sport, everything is not exactly like men. Women are not allowed to participate in the Federal Wrestling Daymale bastion. They have their manifestation. The one who wins the coveted title leaves with a golden crown of oak leaves, a bell or a heifer.
I find it a shame that the female struggle Do not manage to mobilize crowds as male festivals. In terms of sponsorship, we are also very late. But I think it’s women to be proactive. Schwytzoise Sonia is a model: sacred four times queen, she has skillfully marked her titles. Will I be seen one day on the television sets, like her? I don’t think so. I don’t really like being in the spotlight.
On the sporting level, I inspire Roger Federer. He has always shown consistency without being fooled by success. And then there is of course my aunt Brigitte Burri-Kunz, who won the queen’s title five times. The bar is high. I don’t know if I will one day be able to break this family record. I am 27 years old, it is the right age to progress. But no one is immune to a health glider.

Isabel Egli shares with his companion, Adrian Schmutz, the same passion for struggle.
NIK HUNGER
Adrian, my companion, was also fighting in the past. I who had sworn not to wake up a professional in the discipline … There are advantages, in any case. He knows what I am talking about and accepts the sawdust that I bring home. The vacuum cleaner has never worked as well as in a wrestlers’ household!
I want to defend my title this season, it is a question of honor for the queen that I am. It will not be easy. The leading peloton is increasingly tightening, even in women. My word from the end? May tradition are also combined with feminine! May women wear the panties for a long time, and not only in the fight!
Interview by Flavian Cajacob and translated from German by Emmanuelle Stevan.
Flavian Cajacob has been in the media since the 1990s. As a freelance journalist and author, he mainly writes about social issues. More info
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