New York, NY , April 3, 2013 – The Committee for the Preservation of Olympic Wrestling (CPOW) today announced Wes Battle has been named Chief of Staff. 

Battle comes to CPOW from Capitol Hill, where he spent the last year working on House Armed Services Committee issues as Communications Director for Virginia Congressman Randy Forbes. 

“We are excited that Wes Battle will lead our Committee’s efforts to reverse the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Executive Board’s recent recommendation to drop wrestling from the 2020 Summer Olympic Games program,” said CPOW chairman Bill Scherr, an Olympic medalist and World champion wrestler. “We have assembled a strong team of USA Wrestling leadership, business leaders, and Olympic wrestling legends and I am confident Wes can execute our vision to work with FILA and the IOC to ensure Wrestling remains a core Olympic sport.”

Prior to working for the House of Representatives, Battle served ten years in the United States Navy, flying jets off of aircraft carriers in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom, and serving in the Pentagon as an International Affairs analyst for the Secretary of the Navy. Having grown up in Pittsburgh, PA, he is a former wrestler at the University of Virginia.

The Executive Board of the IOC recommended to eliminate wrestling from its core sports for the 2020 Summer Olympic Games at its February 12th meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland. The Executive Board next meets May 29-31 in St. Petersburg, Russia to select which sports to recommend the IOC add to its 2020 and 2024 Summer Olympics program. The IOC General Assembly meets September 4-10 in  Buenos Aires to hold the final vote on the Executive Board’s recommendations.  

The Committee for the Preservation of Olympic Wrestling (CPOW), made up of highly-respected leaders within the American wrestling community, was formed to insure that wrestling remains a core sport of the Olympic Games. 

CPOW is chaired by Bill Scherr of Glenview, Ill., a World champion and Olympic medalist in freestyle wrestling, who help spearhead the Chicago 2016 Olympic bid effort and is a top businessman in the financial services industry. Mike Novogratz of New York, N.Y., is the Committee Spokesperson, a highly respected business leader who was the Team Leader for the 2012 U.S. Olympic freestyle wrestling team, the chairman of Beat the Streets in New York and a top college wrestler for Princeton. Other members include wrestling legends Dan Gable and John Smith.

To Learn more:

The official website is 
www.KeepOlympicWrestling.com

You can find the official Facebook page at 
www.facebook.com/officialkeepwrestlingintheolympics

The official Twitter account is @wrestlingvision