Last weekend, the best wrestlers in the United States in the three international styles of Women’s Freestyle (WFS), Men’s Freestyle (MFS), and Greco-Roman (GR) met in Carver-Hawkeye Arena, on the campus of the University of Iowa, for the chance to represent the United States of America in the Olympic Games this August. These styles are unlike the scholastic/ collegiate style wrestled by the NCAAs, otherwise known as the US native “folkstyle.” After the destruction of FILA (English translation: Federation of Associated International Wrestling Styles) in light of the near-loss of "Olympic Sport" status after the London Games in 2013, the newly-minted international governing body of wrestling, United World Wrestling, altered the entire rule scheme across the three styles in an effort to modernize and return Olympic Wrestling to a core sport.

During non-Olympic years, the United World Wrestling Senior World Championships host 8 weight classes per style (24 weight class/ 3 styles). However, during Olympic years, as regulated by the IOC, the weight classes dwindle to 6 classes per style (18 total weight classes). Thus, 18 brackets were wrestled over the April 9th-10th weekend, with the finals a best-of-3 series between the two survivors of the day’s battle. Top 3 finishers in each weight made the national team, with the champion named the TeamUSA representative and Olympian.

Qualified for Rio Games = (*)

Women’s Freestyle

Men’s Freestyle

Greco-Roman

As of right now, 9 of the 18 weight classes for Team USA have been qualified for the Rio Games. The next step for the National Team is to qualify the remaining 9 weights, namely:

WFS: 48kg, 53kg, 58kg, 69kg

MFS: 65kg, 86kg

GR: 59kg, 66kg, 98kg

There are two (2) “Last Chance” Olympic Games Qualifiers as announced by UnitedWorldWrestling:

April 22-24: First Last Chance Qualifier Tournament (Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia)

-Top 3 placers in MFS and GR, Top 2 in WFS qualify their country (at their weight-class) for the Rio Games.

May 6-8: Second/ Final Last Chance Qualifier Tournament (Istanbul, Turkey)

-Top 2 placers in MFS/ WFS/ GR qualify their country (at their weight-class) for the Rio Games.