NEW YORK, August 14, 2013 – The Committee for the Preservation of Olympic Wrestling (CPOW) in conjunction with USA Wrestling and FILA is going global for their latest weekly Google+ Hangout On Air this Thursday at 5pm ET.  This week representatives from five different nations will discuss what wrestling means to them and the global efforts to save the sport ahead next month’s International Olympic Committee (IOC) vote. Representatives include Daniel Igali (Nigeria/Canada), Lise Legrand (France), Pedro Gama Filho (Brazil) and more. Fans can tweet questions using the #GlobalHangout hashtag.

Both Igali and Legrand represented wrestling at the IOC Executive Board Meeting in May when wrestling made the short list of sports to be included in the 2020 and 2024 Olympic Games. They will also present to IOC General Assembly before their final decision in September in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Igali is a Nigerian-Canadian Olympic gold medalist from the 2000 Sydney Summer Olympic Games and a member of Nigeria's provincial parliament. He won his Olympic gold while competing for Canada, but now works in his home country of Nigeria not only to craft laws for the nation, but also to help their national wrestling federation.

Legrand is a bronze medalist in women’s wrestling at the 2004 Athens Summer Olympic Games for France and currently serves as the French Wrestling Federation’s Vice-President.  Igali and Legrand will also be joined by President of the Brazilian Wrestling Federation Pedro Gama Filho as well as representatives from Canada’s 49 North Wrestling and USA Wrestling.  

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.  These international wrestlers 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.  

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 www.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.