Over the last week, many in the media have painted a bleak outlook for the future of our sport. While as a community we must fight the IOC decision, we must also remain focused on many positive signs that demonstrate our sport is stronger than it's ever been.  Programs like Beat the Streets are helping wrestling to grow all over the United States.  

In an email to wrestling coaches across the country, NWCA Executive Director Mike Moyer recently communicated the following points about how strong our sport is:

1. High school participation has grown by over 40,000 in the past decade
2. 95 new college wrestling teams (at all levels) have been established since 1999
3. Wrestling is the 6th most popular high school boys sport with over 272,000 participants
4. There are now over 8,200 young women who wrestle in high schools and we have 21 intercollegiate women's wrestling teams 
5. The 2012 NCAA DI Wrestling Championships sold an unprecedented 112,000 tickets and wrestling is among the top 5 NCAA revenue producing championships (4 consecutive sellouts)
6. Wrestling is one of the original Olympic sports and has been included in all but one Olympic competition since 1896. Only four other sports -- track and field, cycling, gymnastics and swimming -- have been in more Games.
7. There is no doubt that a strong Olympic wrestling team is helpful in our efforts to increase participation at the grass roots, high school, and college levels.   Young wrestlers need to be able to dream of being an Olympic Champion as they develop.  For this reason, we will fully support USA Wrestling’s efforts to make sure wrestling remains as an Olympic sport.

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