By Gary Abbott
USA Wrestling
Nine champions from the 2016 U.S. Olympic Team Trials for Wrestling will compete in the 1st Olympic Games World Qualifying Tournament, set for Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, April 22-24.

These athletes will be attempting to qualify their weight class and themselves for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. There will be four U.S. women freestyle wrestlers, three Greco-Roman wrestlers and two men’s freestyle wrestlers in this important competition.

So far, there have been two stages of Olympic Qualification. In these phases, the United States qualified for the Rio Olympic Games in nine weight classes, but did not qualify in nine other weight classes. The U.S. wrestlers who won the Olympic Trials in the nine non-qualified weight classes will be wrestling in Mongolia. The U.S. delegations in all three styles have already traveled to Ulaanbaatar to prepare for the tournament.

The top three men’s freestyle and Greco-Roman placewinners in Mongolia qualify their nations to compete at the Olympic Games, while the top two women freestyle placewinners in each weight qualify their nation for the Olympics. Nations may only enter athletes in this tournaments in weight classes which they have not already qualified for Rio.

Greco-Roman will be contested on Friday, April 22, women’s freestyle on Saturday, April 23 and men’s freestyle on Sunday, April 24.

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