Brendan Johnson, a high school wrestler who was 18 years old at the time, decided to withdraw from the state tournament after learning who he would be competing against.
In spite of the fact that Johnson, who hails from Colorado, claims that he withdrew from the competition due to his religious convictions, critics question whether or not an other reason was involved. Despite the fact that Johnson was competing against female wrestlers, she chose to withdraw from the competition rather than confront them in the ring.
The previous month, Brandon decided to withdraw from his preliminary match against Jaslynn Gallegos, a senior at Skyview High School, since he was adamant about not competing against a female opponent. After that, when he entered the relief bouts, he resigned against the third opponent, Angel Rios from Valley High. He was therefore eliminated from the competition.
Instead of competing with both of the females, he was willing to give up both of them. The fourth place finisher was Angel Rios, while the fifth place finisher was Jaslynn Gallegos.
Classical Academy in Colorado Springs is where Brandon Johnson received his education and graduated. He claimed that it was better to lose by resigning rather than to fight a female owing to his spiritual and personal ideas. This was despite the fact that his forfeits brought an end to his high school fighting career.
Brendan considers himself to be a true Christian. Getting so near to a lady, he said in an interview with KDVR, was a breach of his values. He claimed this in support of his position.
It’s so near and so tangible,” she said. In my view, it is not anything that should be done about a female. In addition to that, it is really aggressive, and I’m not at all sure that I’m okay with that.
When asked about his ideas on Christianity and fighting, Brendan said that he was more than eager to discuss them with the news source.
There is something about the concept of fighting with a woman that I find challenging, and a portion of that difficulty originates from the fact that I have faith and confidence in the subject matter. And a portion of it is due to the manner in which I was brought up to interact with women, in addition to maybe being influenced by other experiences and information.
Despite the fact that Brandon passed up the opportunity to fight because his opponents were female, he does not consider this to be an issue of equality.
“I do not believe that I am seeing them as being different to one another. The reason I am claiming that they are women rather than men is because I am of the opinion that males and females are separate and that we are made in various ways. On the other hand, I am of the opinion that women are just as valuable as males. The idea that men and women are distinct from one another does not, in my opinion, contradict the concept of equality.
It was because Brandon’s forfeits were so flagrant that The Denver Post decided to give him another opportunity to be interviewed. Since he began participating in the sport when he was in the seventh grade, he said that he had never faced off against a female competitor.
“In addition, I am a supporter of physical violence. I do not want to have to deal with a woman like that when we are on the mat. You might also remove yourself off the mat. The purpose of this is not to minimize her heart or the effort that she has done. On the other hand, I do not wish to engage in such activity. It is not who we are; it is what we do, and because of that, we make mistakes. In addition, there are other things that are more significant to me than my mistakes. And I want them to be the most important things in my life.
It was when Gallegos was five years old that she first started fighting. She found Johnson’s capitulation to be particularly sexist.
In an interview with The Washington Post, Gallegos discussed her sentiments over Brandon’s decision to quit because she was a woman.
“This entire time that I have actually battled, it’s simply me trying to show a point that I am simply a wrestler,” she said in an interview with the Washington Post. “As a consequence of this, the fact that my gender is something that continues to hold me back is a little stressful, but I respect his decision.” Absolutely wonderful. To my mind, I am not a female wrestler; rather, I am simply a wrestler. This is my whole concept. In other words, it doesn’t precisely hurt my emotions, but I do take it seriously.