NEW YORK, July 23, 2013 – The latest in the Committee for the Preservation of Olympic Wrestling (CPOW) in conjunction with USA Wrestling and FILA’s Google+ Hangout On Air series will feature a cast of top female wrestlers this Thursday, July 25th at 2pm ET.  Top US female wrestlers Elena Pirozhkova, Helen Maroulis and Alli Ragan will be joined by Canadian world champion wrestler Jessica MacDonald to chat with fans and each other about the importance of women’s wrestling, the future of women in the sport and the importance of saving Olympic wrestling as a whole for 2020. Fans can tweet questions to the girls with the hashtag #WWHangout.

Pirozhkova is the reigning World Champion at 63kg, while Maroulis was runner-up at the 2012 World Championships at 55kg and just returned from Greece where she brought home a silver medal in the Olympia 2013 event held on the grounds of ancient Olympia.  Ragan is coming off of a silver medal performance at the World University Games in Kazan Russia and is the reigning US Open Champion at 59kg. MacDonald will make this the first international hangout as the Canadian and reigning world champion at 51kg will also join the Americans.

Fans can RSVP to the event on the Keep Olympic Wrestling Google+ Page and watch it live on the Keep Olympic Wrestling YouTube Channel and TheMat.com.  The girls are the latest of several Olympic wrestlers and leaders who will participate in weekly Google+ Hangouts On Air leading up to the International Olympic Committee’s final vote in September.  Some of the other wrestling personalities who will participate in the weekly hangouts include, FILA President Nenad Lalovic, FILA representative and Olympic gold medalist Daniel Igali, Executive Director of USA Wrestling Rich Bender, CPOW chairman Bill Scherr, celebrities and more. 

ABOUT CPOW
The Committee for the Preservation of Olympic Wrestling (CPOW) was developed by USA Wrestling, whose mission is to insure that wrestling remains as a core sport of the Olympic Games. CPOW features many highly-respected leaders within the American wrestling, chaired by Bill Scherr of Glenview, Ill., a World champion and Olympic medalist in freestyle wrestling and a leader in the Olympic family.

The official website is KeepOlympicWrestling.com. You can find the official Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/officialkeepwrestlingintheolympics. The official Twitter location is @wrestlingvision.

FILA, the international governing body for wrestling can be found at its official website at http://www.fila-official.com/ and they are on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/fila.official and on Twitter @FILA_Official.