Columbus, Ohio is one of the seven cities which has submitted a bid to 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.

The Columbus bid has been submitted by the Greater Columbus Sports Commission. The proposed venue for the competition is Value City Arena at the Jerome Schottenstein Center.

“Columbus is proud to invite USA Wrestling and USA Weightlifting to hold the 2012 U.S. Olympic Trials for Wrestling and Weightlifting in Columbus,” said Linda Shetina Logan, executive director of the Greater Columbus Sports Commission. “We strongly feel that we have the grass-roots support, the facilities and most importantly the commitment from our entire city to produce an unparalleled experience for the participants, coaches and fans.”
 
The competition venue at the Schottenstein Center is a 19,700-seat arena located on The Ohio State campus. The venue has more than enough room on the main arena floor for the required raised wrestling mats and weightlifting positions. In addition, a 15,000-foot auxiliary gym is available for athlete warm-up areas. 

The arena is the full-time home for Ohio State’s men’s basketball, women’s basketball and men’s ice hockey teams. For more information, visit www.schottensteincenter.com/

The Columbus LOC is headed by the Greater Columbus Sports Commission, the only organization 100 percent dedicated to attracting professional, collegiate, youth and amateur sporting events to Columbus. For more information, visit www.columbussports.org

Columbus has long hosted the Ohio High School Athletic Association State Wrestling Championships, considered one of the most competitive and successful state tournaments in the nation. Hosted at Value City Arena, the 2010 State Wrestling Championships drew 64,617 fans over five sessions, including 14,886 for the finals. The OHSAA hosts a total of 19 different state championships in Columbus throughout the year.

Among the weightlifting events hosted in Columbus were the 1967 U.S. Senior National AAU Weightlifting Championships and the 1970 World Weightlifting Championships. Legendary weightlifting star Vasily Alexev of the Soviet Union became the first to clean-and-jerk more than 500 pounds during the 1970 Worlds held in Columbus.

In 2008, the National Weightlifting Championships were held in Columbus in conjunction with the Arnold Weightlifting Championships as a qualifying event for the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team Trials for Weightlifting.  Held in Columbus for nine years as part of the Arnold Sports Festival, the Arnold Championships draws more than 200 competitors from around the world and was used as a qualifying event for the 2010 U.S. Pan American Championship Team.

The city has hosted the NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournament competitions, the NCAA Frozen Four, as well as NCAA Championships in women’s swimming, diving and fencing. Columbus also hosted the National Hockey League’s Entry Draft and the U.S. Olympic Team Trials for Synchronized Swimming. Professional sports franchises in the city include the NHL Columbus Blue Jackets, Major League Soccer’s Columbus Crew and Triple-A baseball’s Columbus Clippers. 

For 22 years, Columbus has hosted the Arnold Sports Festival, billed as the largest multi-sport event of the world, with 18,000 athletes competing in 45 sports witnessed by 175,000 attendees. Many of those involved in the Arnold Sports Festival participate in combat and strength sports, including both wrestling and weightlifting.

The bid has the support of The Ohio State University, including Athletic Director Gene Smith and his staff. Ohio State has one of the nation’s most competitive Division I varsity wrestling teams, under the leadership of Head Coach Tom Ryan. Ohio State placed second in the 2008 and 2009 NCAA Championships, and has produced several U.S. Olympic Team contenders in recent seasons. Associate Head Coach Lou Rosselli competed in freestyle wrestling at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta.

The Ohio Regional Training Center is based in Columbus, which shares space with Ohio State’s wrestling program at the Steelwood Athletic Training Facility. A number of the top Olympic hopefuls in men’s freestyle wrestling train there year-round, with a strong coaching staff and administrative leadership.

Other Div. I wrestling programs in the state include Ohio University, 74 miles from Columbus, Kent State University, 138 miles from Columbus and Cleveland State Univ., 143 miles from Columbus. The state of Ohio boasts 17 college varsity wrestling programs, including four in Div. I, three in Div. II, nine in Div. III and one in the NAIA. Notre Dame College is the defending NAIA national wrestling champions.

USA Wrestling – Ohio is an active and successful state association, with 4,383 athletes, 401 coaches and 101 clubs in the 2009-10 membership year. The organization is led by state chair Chris Kallai of Wadsworth. USA Wrestling – Ohio has helped host major USA Wrestling events in the state, including the U.S. Open in Cleveland as well as the University and FILA Cadet Nationals in Akron. For more information, visit www.usawrestling-ohio.org

Ohio also has one of the largest high school wrestling programs in the nation. According to the National Federation of State High School Associations, Ohio had 12,983 boys high school wrestlers from 617 high school teams in 2009-10. This ranks No. 2 nationally in number of teams and No. 4 nationally in participants. The NFHS statistics also included 114 girl high school wrestlers from 53 programs.

The Ohio Tournament of Champions, hosted in Columbus, is billed as one of the largest one-day amateur wrestling events in the nation.

The Columbus Weightlifting Club, for nearly 10 years, has hosted the Arnold Weightlifting Championships, and has been involved in hosting the Ohio State Championships, the National Weightlifting Championships and the American Open Weightlifting Championships.

The Columbus metropolitan area includes a population of 1.5 million people. Columbus serves as the state capital for Ohio. There are more than 23,000 hotel rooms in the city, with more than 3,200 in the downtown area. The city is served by the Port Columbus International Airport.

Among the major tourist attractions are the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium as well as the Center of Science and Industry (COSI). Other popular activities include the Franklin Park Conservatory and the Columbus Museum of Art. Among the popular locations in the city are the Arena District and the Short North Arts District. 

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. 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.

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.