Every month, WIBN spotlights one of our Ambassadors (interns), and this month, we are excited to introduce our Network to Skylar Grote. Skylar is a graduate student at Oregon State University and is an athlete at OSU's Regional Training Center, "The Dam RTC." She is a highly ranked wrestler and will be wrestling at Final X (presented by Beat the Streets) in New York City on June 8, where a victory will secure her a spot on the U.S. World Team. Skylar's journey has not been easy, and she has handled the ups and downs as many wrestlers handle adversity, with resilience, resolve, and commitment to overcome.

Skylar is originally from Frelinghuysen, New Jersey, and grew up in a wrestling family. As a five-year-old girl, she remembers her "introduction" to wrestling by watching her father and a friend scrapping in the family living room, and she immediately thought, "that looks like fun." But her parents thought it was too early to sign her up and waited a few years until Skylar had grown a bit. Three years later, her parents asked if she wanted to wrestle. At that time, she had already been part of other sports teams and wasn't that interested in wrestling, but she agreed to do it for a year and the rest, as they say, is history.

Skylar fell in love with the sport during her first year (1st-grade), but she wasn't competing. Her father thought it best to give her a year to practice and not enter competitions. It wasn't until year two that Skylar saw her first competition and found a lot of success. She would continue to climb the ladder in her club and soon be at the top and wrestling for her middle school team.

As she got to high school, she had a decision to make. Skylar was very much focused on academics and wanted to go to a top-notch high school to give her the foundation to go to an equally top-notch college/university. That led her to Blair Academy. Everyone in the wrestling universe knows Blair Academy is a wrestling powerhouse, and so did Skylar. Initially, she didn't even plan on wrestling because she didn't think she could keep up with a room full of high-caliber boy wrestlers. But during her orientation, after meeting the Blair wrestling staff, they welcomed her with open arms. She decided that she would give it a shot. But that wouldn't be easy!

During her freshman year, she played volleyball in the Fall and had to transition to wrestling quickly. The problem was that she wasn't in wrestling shape and was then thrown into a Blair practice. Her first practice was three hours long, and she still doesn't know how she survived, but she did. She remembers how hard that first practice was and how she wanted to puke, but in her mind, she told herself, "don't puke; you're the only girl."

Over the next four years, Skylar continued to wrestle and forged some incredible relationships with her Blair classmates and, especially, the other wrestlers. Competition with female wrestlers was limited in New Jersey because there were only about 7-8 other high school girls competing as seriously as she was. (This is a far cry from where the state of New Jersey is right now, thanks to some herculean efforts by some strong wrestling advocates who have battled to get a sanctioned high school girls tournament).

As she entered her senior year, Skylar again faced a tough decision on where to further her education in college. Academics remained the number one priority for her, and she wanted to make sure that any college decision was based first and foremost on the institution's academic quality. Wrestling was not the primary factor in deciding on a college. For that reason, she chose to go to Lafayette College (Easton, PA). Lafayette is an excellent academic school with one problem: they didn't have a wrestling program, men's or women's. During that first year of college, she still trained and worked out routinely with Lehigh Valley Wrestling Club and the Lafayette club program, but she knew a tremendous void. She needed more competitions and female athletes to push her. For this reason, she decided to transfer and expand her search criteria to find a great academic school and competitive wrestling program. This would lead her to Brock University in Ontario, Canada.

Not many U.S. wrestlers go to Canada to wrestle, but Brock was a natural fit for Skylar. It had a great business management program, and the wrestling room was full of top-level competition led by an excellent coach in Marty Calder. Skylar thrived at Brock and had a very positive experience there. She knew that she needed wrestling to be happy, and Brock provided precisely that, along with a great educational experience.

Following graduation from Brock (B.A., Business Management), Skylar would continue to compete and train. She found herself back home in New Jersey and training at Lehigh Valley Wrestling Club, which didn't have many female athletes. Skylar started to look into ways to further her athletic and academic career. Skylar tweeted a short message on social media stating, "we need more RTCs with female athletes ."The Assistant Coach at Oregon State University, Nate Engel, responded, saying that The Dam RTC was looking to expand its female roster.

In the Winter of 2020, Skylar flew to Corvallis, Oregon, spent about a week there, and embraced the culture. She was hooked and became an athlete representing The Dam RTC at OSU. Her time at The Dam has been amazing, and Skylar truly appreciates how well respected the women athletes are by the RTC athletes and the OSU wrestlers. She credits the coaching staff with creating a team-oriented environment where all are equally respected. But not all would go perfectly for Skylar. As the World Team Trials approached, she decided to drop a weight class and would end up finishing fourth at the Trials, losing the third-place match in the last second by a single point and missing making the national team. Perhaps more importantly, she would develop a series of head-scratching injuries that included an inability to maintain her weight. She realized that 65kgs was not sustainable, and she spent time figuring out a new proper weight where she felt mentally and physically at her best.

So she decided that she was done cutting weight and that she'd now compete at 72kgs. How did that go? She won the U.S. Open and qualified for Final X on June 8, where she will wrestle Amit Elor. The winner will represent the United States on the World Team. The WIBN wishes her all the best!

While Skylar still has some competition left in the tank, she has ambitions of coaching at the Division I level after she is done competing. She has hopes that more Division I schools will add women's wrestling to provide not just wrestling opportunities for student-athletes but also the academic opportunities that many Division I schools offer.

Skylar is very active on social media, and much of her messaging is designed to help others with body image issues. She embraces her role as an example for all people struggling with accepting their bodies. Her messaging is designed to support being healthy, active, and balanced, which is something that she, herself, struggled with in the past. In addition, Skylar is vocal about helping to grow and market the sport, particularly for women. She envisions a sport where athletes become household names within the wrestling community because women athletes are given similar coverage as men wrestlers.

The WIBN encourages our followers and members to check out and follow Skylar's social media pages at:

• Instagram: @skygrote

• Twitter: @skygrote

Some interesting facts about Skylar:

• Three people she'd like to have dinner with: Mik Zazon, Dan Gable, and Ronda Rousey

• If stranded on a deserted island, these are the five things she'd want to have: chocolate covered almonds, a blanket, clothes, coffee, a toothbrush

• Three people who have had a significant impact on her life: Mom and Dad, Hannah Taylor, Nate Engel

• Last book she read: Intuitive Eating, by Evelyn Trible and Elise Resch

• Cheat meal: Pizza (Jersey baby!)

• Favorite musical artist: Russ

• Favorite movie: Just Go With It

• Binge T.V. show: Shameless

• Proudest wrestling moment: Winning the 2022 U.S. Open

• If she weren't a wrestler, this is what she'd be doing: Marketing and Advertising (currently assists with The Dam RTC social media outreach).