this post was submitted on 24 Nov 2025
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This story always seemed so outlandish to me, that I'm still convinced it isn't actually the entire story. Like; the men were losing on purpose for some sort of political favor of sorts.
*Edit: So I've done some sleuthing. The story is BS. The only original source of the wrestling for horses came from Marco Polo, and he made up\exagerated all sorts of stuff. She was known as a wrestler, but nothing of defeating 100 men undefeated. Also, the 100 men part was just made up at some point even later, as Marco Polo never gave mention of a number of men she'd wrestled. Only that she had a herd of 10,000 horses won from wrestling. I couldn't find a source for when the 100 men part got added on.
A hundred horses is a steep price even for a Mongol noble to lose for a nondescript favor - and the marriage of a Mongol princess is a high prize to be won.
That she was a highly accomplished warrior as well suggests that her prowess was legitimate, considering that the enemy on the battlefield was unlikely to 'play nice'.
Im sorry but the difference of raw strength makes this story bullshit. No way they didnt lose on purpose of they just lied about the outcome.
Right, and I'm sure that the men she captured on the battlefield were just really invested in proving the enemy royalty's war prowess at the expense of their own reputation and, potentially, lives.
"she" didn't capture men on the battlefield. She led an army. Big difference.
Yeah it’s gotta be fantastical. I know some women who are incredible athletes and could defeat 99% of men… but not 100%. There’s just a reality, and especially in strength sports like wrestling, and the Mongolian style at that, where size is the winning factor and men can just get much bigger than any woman and overwhelm them.
No woman known for being beautiful is nearly as strong as a strong man. Wrestling is very much a skill, but there's a reason there's so many weight classes. I wrestled for several years. Strength can overcome skill.
Lord.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Maybe she had a bodybuilder build, and those Mongols thought that was hot af.
Or maybe she was butt ass ugly but everyone liked keeping their heads rather than insult a princess.
It's a trap to think 1) there's just one standard of beauty and 2) one objective standard spans all centuries.
The best example of this not being the case is found in renaissance art. Beautiful women were depicted as chubby by our standards because extra weight meant being wealthy. This standard changed during the Reformation when gluttony started being seen as a sin and a sign of depravity of the Catholic church. From then on, the standard of female beauty shifted towards thinness.
It doesn't matter. We're talking about the possibility of a woman existing that had 100 different men who thought they could defeat her in a wrestling match, wagering up a thousand horses each. A challenge that spanned over years. As her reputation if defeating all these dudes would spread and be known, after the first ten or twenty guys were defeated, the only challengers (if they were actually intending to win) would have been almost nothing but large and strong guys experienced in wrestling.
There just isn't any way that would happen.
Those goalposts far enough back for ya, or do you wanna keep movin' 'em?
You're the one who tried changing the argument off of my original post, bro.
You're the one taking this waaay too seriously, my guy.
Classic
What a sentence. Back to your figures, please.