Health and Wellbeing in Professional Wrestling

Last November a group of twelve medics/academics/wrestlers met for lunch at the Elite Athlete Centre at Loughborough University. The aim was to have a day-long conversation about some of the main challenges and opportunities for wrestler health and wellbeing. We discussed a range of topics, from the strains placed on mental health to concussion protocol (or lack thereof). It was a fascinating conversation and we left feeling that a larger project that really dug into these issues would be not just interesting but vital. Since then we have committed to applying for external grants to fund this work. And, this week, I can make the happy announcement that the team (that is me, Prof Mark King, Dr Anthony Papathomas, Dr Dominic Malcolm and Sam West) has secured a British Academy Small Grant. We are, as you might imagine, delighted with this outcome, especially in such a competitive funding landscape. For the British Academy to be forward-thinking enough to see this project as worthy of its money is a big deal. So, watch this space (and, in the long run, hopefully, actual physical spaces) for more as 2020 moves into 2021.