Greensboro, N.C. is one of seven cities that have 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 Greensboro bid has been submitted by the Greensboro Sports Commission. The proposed venue for the competition is the Greensboro Coliseum Complex.

“We are very centrally located in the state of North Carolina and the Eastern seaboard which offers affordable opportunities for athletes to get to our destination,” said Henri Fourrier, President/CEO of the Greensboro Area Convention and Visitors Bureau. “Our experience is that we are close and accessible to numerous wrestling hotbeds. We have a great airport and many flight options to get here. We are excited about being part of this opportunity.”

The competition venue at the Greensboro Coliseum Complex will be set for 10,000 spectators but can be expanded to handle a capacity of more than 22,000. The venue has more than enough room on the main arena floor for the required raised wrestling mats and weightlifting platforms. There is also a Special Events Center as part of the complex which could be utilized for competition needs or as a “warm up” venue. For more information, visit www.greensborocoliseum.com

The Greensboro Sports Commission and its partners, the Greensboro Area Convention and Visitors Bureau and the Greensboro Coliseum, are pleased to bring top sporting events to Tournament Town. Greensboro has been named Tournament Town because of its rich tradition of hosting professional, collegiate, and amateur sporting events. The Local Organizing Committee and its team of more than 500 volunteers eagerly await each sporting event. For more information visit www.greensborosportscomm.com

“Our biggest thing to boast about is that we host the North Carolina High School State Wrestling Championships, the Super 32 Challenge, and the Southern Scuffle college wrestling tournament,” said Fourrier. “Through these events, we have a huge draw for wrestling and a high level of exposure in the high school and college wrestling community. The next step for us is to bring the U.S. Olympic Team Trials to Greensboro.”

The North Carolina High School State Wrestling Championships, which include all four classifications of the Individual State Championships with more than 800 wrestlers and spanning three days, are hosted each year at the Greensboro Coliseum Complex. 

One of the largest pre-season high school wrestling tournaments in the country, the Super 32 Challenge, hosts a talented field of 1,500-1,800 wrestlers with a history of the registration being sold out in record time. Developed in the 1990s, the tournament has established a national reputation.  This year, the event utilized 27 mats over 120,000 square feet of space in the in the Greensboro Coliseum Special Events Center. 

The Southern Scuffle is a major college wrestling tournament held annually in late December. It is considered one of the nation’s best holiday-season wrestling events, attracting numerous nationally-ranked teams and individuals each year. Hosted by UNC-Greensboro, the Southern Scuffle utilizes 10 mats in the Greensboro Coliseum Special Events Center. This year’s field includes Cornell, who is currently ranked No. 1 in the nation in Wrestling Insider Magazine. Minnesota (No. 4) and Penn State (No. 6) are also ranked in the top-10 and will be at the tournament this year. In all, there will be eight of the top 25 programs in attendance this year.

Also adding to Greensboro’s “Tournament Town” reputation is the fact that it’s the home of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). The Coliseum has hosted more ACC women’s (11) and men’s (22) basketball tournaments than any other venue as well as 15 NCAA basketball tournaments, including the Final Four in 1974.

In January, the 2011 US Figure Skating Championships will be held at the Coliseum Complex, marking the first time this event has been held in North Carolina The City of Greensboro also annually hosts a top PGA Tour Event, the Wyndham Championship, and has recently hosted NCAA Division III Golf Championships and set records for NCAA Division I Women’s Soccer Championship two years in a row.

Professional sports franchises in the area include a minor league baseball franchise, the Greensboro Grasshoppers, and a USL Premier Developmental League soccer team, the Carolina Dynamo.

The University of North Carolina at Greensboro has a Division I wrestling program that was the Southern Conference tournament champion in 2010. The team is coached by Jason Loukides who was a successful international wrestler competing for the U.S. Army and a member of the 2001 U.S. Greco-Roman World Team. 

In addition to UNC-Greensboro, the state of North Carolina boasts five other Division I wrestling teams at the University of North Carolina, North Carolina State University, Duke University, Davidson College, Gardner-Webb University and Appalachian State University. North Carolina boasts nine varsity college wrestling teams, six in Division I and three in Division II.

The North Carolina Amateur Wrestling Association is the USA Wrestling state wrestling association with 1,321 athletes, 186 coaches and 48 clubs in the 2009-10 membership year. The organization is led by state chair Scott Goins of Gastonia. For more information, visit www.ncwrestling.org/

According to the National Federation of State High School Associations, North Carolina had 10,238 boys high school wrestlers from 316 high school teams in 2009-10.

Located in nearby Winston-Salem, N.C., two of the USA Weightlifting Clubs in the area are Triad Barbell Club and the Triangle Weightlifting Institute. This region is an up-and-coming weightlifting community with four meets scheduled to be held annually beginning in 2011.

The Greensboro metropolitan area includes a population of more than 725,000 people. There are 5.5 million people within a two-hour drive to the city. The City boasts five colleges and universities within a 10 miles radius with a student population of more than 40,000. There are seven hotels within 1.5 miles of the venue that would be available for fans who attend the competition.

The city is served by the Piedmont Triad International Airport. Alternate airports include the Raleigh Durham International Airport (66 miles away) and the Charlotte Douglas International Airport (83 miles away).

Among the major tourist attractions are the Greensboro Children’s Museum, the Cultural Center at Festival Park, the Greensboro Historical Museum, the Guilford Courthouse National Military Park, the International Civil Rights Center and Museum and the Natural Science Center of Greensboro. 

In March of 2011, the ACC Hall of Champions will debut in the western portion of the Special Events Center. The ACC Hall of Champions will celebrate past, present and future conference success through the design and use of interactive displays, unique institutional exhibits and multi-purpose program space.

Adjacent to the ACC Hall of Champions on the Greensboro Coliseum Complex campus, the Greensboro Aquatic Center will open in July of 2011. The 78,323-square-foot indoor state-of-the-art facility will feature leading edge concepts in aquatic design and will offer Greensboro the opportunity to host high school and collegiate events, USA Swimming meets, master's swimming and U.S. Water Polo events as well as a myriad of local, regional, national and international competitions.

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 January 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.