USA Wrestling has received seven proposal packets from bid cities and their potential local organizing committees to jointly host the 2012 U.S. Olympic Team Trials for Wrestling and Weightlifting.

The target date for the event is the weekend of April 20-21, 2012.

Each bid proposal includes hosting both the 2012 U.S. Olympic Team Trials for Wrestling and Weightlifting. The wrestling event will feature competition in the three Olympic styles of the sport – men’s freestyle, Greco-Roman and women’s freestyle.  The weightlifting event will include both men’s and women’s weight divisions.

The competition will determine the U.S. athletes in both sports who will qualify to represent the United States at the 2012 Olympic Games in London, England.

Listed alphabetically below are the bid cities, with the organizations which have submitted the bid, along with the proposed arena where the event might be held: 

COLUMBUS, OHIO – Greater Columbus Sports Commission – Value City Arena at the Jerome Schottenstein Center

COUNCIL BLUFFS, IOWA – Council Bluffs Convention & Visitor Bureau & Council Bluffs Olympic Trials Committee (Iowa) – Mid-America Center

GREENSBORO, N.C. – Greensboro Sports Commission – Greensboro Coliseum Complex

HAMPTON, VA. – Hampton Convention & Visitor Bureau – Hampton Coliseum

IOWA CITY, IOWA – University of Iowa Athletics Department and Iowa City/Coralville Area Convention & Visitors Bureau – Carver Hawkeye Arena

OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLA. – Oklahoma City All Sports Association and Oklahoma City Convention and Visitors Bureau – Cox Arena

PONTIAC, MICH. – Triple Sports & Entertainment, LLC/Silverdome Venue – The Silverdome

“We are extremely pleased with the quality of the bids received,” said USA Wrestling Executive Director Rich Bender. “We expect to be able to partner with a local organizing committee and host city which will do an outstanding job hosting our U.S. Olympic Team Trials event.”

"We are looking forward to partnering with USA Wrestling to host the Olympic Trials," said Laurie Lopez, USA Weightlifting Interim CEO. "The Trials are our most prestigious event and this partnership will give our lifters the opportunity to compete in front of a great crowd of thousands who may never have seen Olympic weightlifting in person."

The group of seven bid cities will be reduced to between three and four finalist bids, with an announcement from USA Wrestling and USA Weightlifting expected on Dec. 20.

The organizing committees selected as finalists will be invited to make an in-person presentation on behalf of their bid during the week of Jan. 10-14, 2011.

A committee will review the finalist bid presentations.  The committee will include USA Wrestling staff and athletes, as well as representatives from USA Weightlifting. An announcement on the bid selected to host the 2012 U.S. Olympic Team Trials for Wrestling and Weightlifting is targeted for Jan. 17, 2011.

“We are thrilled to see so much interest in hosting a U.S. Olympic Team Trials from communities around the country,” Scott Blackmun, USOC Chief Executive Officer, said. “We are grateful for the support from the seven cities bidding to host the 2012 Trials for Wrestling and Weightlifting – all demonstrating a passion for the Olympic Movement. These Trials promise to be an important step in shaping our 2012 U.S. Olympic Team.”

This will be the second consecutive Olympic quadrennium in which USA Wrestling will partner with another National Governing Body within the Olympic family to hold the U.S. Olympic Team Trials side-by-side. In 2008, USA Wrestling partnered with USA Judo for a joint U.S. Olympic Team Trials event.

Since USA Wrestling became the sport’s National Governing Body for the sport in 1983, eight different cities have hosted the U.S. Olympic Team Trials event. 

In 1992 and 1996, the final U.S. Olympic Team Trials event for wrestling was split into two events, with men’s freestyle in one city and Greco-Roman in another city. Women’s freestyle wrestling was added to the event in 2004, after the International Olympic Committee included the discipline for the first time in the Olympic program at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games.

Since USA Wrestling has hosted the event, the only city to host the U.S. Olympic Team Trials twice was Concord, Calif., which held the Greco-Roman competition in both 1992 and 1996.

PAST U.S. OLYMPIC TEAM TRIALS FOR WRESTLING
(Organized by USA Wrestling as the sport’s NGB)
1984 – Allendale, Mich.
1988 – Pensacola, Fla.
1992 – Pittsburgh, Pa. (FS); Concord, Calif. (GR)
1996 – Spokane, Wash. (FS); Concord, Calif.(GR)
2000 – Dallas, Texas
2004 – Indianapolis, Ind.
2008 – Las Vegas, Nev.

Since USA Weightlifting began conducting U.S. Olympic Team Trials in 1984, six cities have hosted the event with St. Joseph, Mo., being the only city to have done so twice (1996 and 2004).  

In 2000, women’s weightlifting was added to the Olympic program and, since then, both men’s and women’s divisions have been contested at the Trials.  

PAST U.S. OLYMPIC TEAM TRIALS FOR WEIGHTLIFTING
(Organized by USA Weightlifting as the sport’s NGB)
1984 – Las Vegas, Nev.
1988 – Boca Raton, Fla.
1992 – Peoria, Ill.
1996 – St. Joseph, Mo.
2000 – New Orleans, La.
2004 – St. Joseph, Mo.
2008 – Atlanta, Ga.