On Sunday, September 8, 2013, wrestling was given a second chance through hard work and dedication by the new leadership at FILA. On the first vote, wrestling received 49 votes out of the 95 voters, receiving the majority of votes and winning on the first ballot.

“We re-established the integrity of the sport with our new leadership,” Lee Roy Smith said. “It’s one thing to have a plan but it’s another thing to have the right leadership who can implement it and execute it the way it needs to progress the sport.”

Head coaches John Smith of Oklahoma State and Mark Cody of University of Oklahoma were on hand to celebrate wrestling’s victory and talk to fans and the media about what this means to wrestling and to their programs. As wrestling was announced the winner, the crowd in the museum began to cheer and many wrestlers; youth, collegiate and Olympic; sighed with relief. Their Olympic dreams still live!

A special note of gratitude to members of CPOW (Committee to Preserve Olympic Wrestling) and USA Wrestling for assisting FILA with its strategies and goals for reinstating wrestling on the Olympic program.

Below are some pictures from the watch party at the museum and some links to some of the many news articles and videos. Enjoy!

Links:

USA Wrestling
FILA

Wall Street Journal
Olympic.org
Inside the Games
USA Today
O'Colly

[gallery link="file" ids="9865,9871,9870,9922,9874,9878,9877,9879,9881,9887,9889,9892,9897,9899,9902,9903,9904,9906,9907,9909,9910,9911,9912,9913,9915,9916,9917,9918,9919,9920,9921,9885,9923,9924,9883,9926,9884,9927,9929,9888,9930,9876,9880,9890,9875,9931"]