(January 12, 2015) Ottawa – 2008 Canadian Olympic Champion Carol Huynh has been chosen as a United World Wrestling Super 8 Ambassador.

With a growing participation among women in the sport of wrestling and a renewed focus on gender equity, the campaign, featuring Huynh and seven other ambassadors, will be launched to focus on the development of women in wrestling worldwide. Huynh’s outstanding accomplishments stand for themselves. Huynh is an Olympic Champion, Olympic Bronze Medalist, two-time Pan Am Games Champion, Commonwealth Games Champion, four-time World Medalist and 11-time Canadian Champion

“I’m very honoured to be a part of the Women’s Super 8 Campaign. I think it’s fantastic that United World Wrestling is focusing on promoting women in the sport of wrestling, not just athletes, but coaches, administrators, officials, etc.,” says Huynh. “It’s a big step in the right direction. It’ll be an exciting launch in Lausanne on January 14th and I have a lot of respect and pride for the women who will be featured in the weeks following.”

The United World Wrestling promotional campaign will kick off in Switzerland on January 14, 2015 and will feature week-long promos of eight female wrestling ambassadors. The will launch with a special presentation at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne and conclude on International Women’s Day Sunday, March 8, 2015 at the Women’s World Cup in St. Petersburg. The exhibition at the Olympic Museum will include panel discussions with the ambassadors, sports demonstrations and interactive features to showcase the development of women’s wrestling.

United World Wrestling sees the campaign as a way to promote opportunities worldwide. In a recent press release the President Nenad Lalovic acknowledged the pro-active objectives of the campaign.

“We plan to be a leader in developing wrestling opportunities for women around the world,” said Lalovic. “Our sport will be active and successful in supporting women of all ages who want to participate in wrestling. We are making this one of our organization’s top commitments moving forward.”

United World Wrestling looks to achieve several goals during the two-month campaign, including having national federations sign the Sydney Scorecard – a mechanism by which federations can gauge their level of gender equity in their organizations. They’ll also be encouraged to sign the Brighton Plus Helsinki Declaration, a policy document developed by the International Working Group on Women in Sport that is a commitment to making positive changes in gender equity.

As part of the campaign, ambassadors are being asked to host tournaments, make public appearances and organize training camps in their home country. The ambassadors will also be at the front of an upcoming social media campaign aimed at increasing the number of women being introduced to the sport.

The additional Super 8 Ambassadors include:

• Edith DOCSA (ITA) – United World Wrestling referee
• Fanny ECHEVERRY (COL) – President of the Colombian Wrestling Federation
• Helen MAROULIS (USA) – 2012 world silver medalist
• Sofia MATTSON (SWE) – 2012 world champion, Olympic bronze medalist
• Isabelle SAMBOU (SEN) – 2012 Olympian
• Natalia VOROBEYVA (RUS) – 2012 Olympic champion
• Saori YOSHIDA (JPN) – Three-time Olympic champion, 12-time world champion