In honor of wrestling being reinstated as an Olympic sport for the 2020 and 2024 Olympic games USA Wrestling will be counting down the top 10 moments in wrestling’s Olympic fight. 

The No. 8 spot in the Olympic Fight Top 10 goes to the wildly successful social media charge displayed by the entire wrestling community.

In the morning hours of Feb. 12, the day of the initial IOC recommendation, USA Wrestling created the “Keep Wrestling in the Olympics” Facebook page. By days end the Facebook page had received nearly 75,000 likes. 

Similarly, FILA, the international governing body for wrestling, has gained over 100,000 likes on its Facebook page since Feb. 12. 

After compiling likes Facebook likes from FILA, USA Wrestling, CPOW and a fan created Save Olympic Wrestling Facebook page, the sport of wrestling is supported on Facebook by over 600,000 individuals. 

Fan growth has also spread to Twitter with wrestling being followed by more than 122,000 individuals via the FILA, USA Wrestling, CPOW and Save Olympic Wrestling fan twitter handles. 

Continuing in the effort to grow and modernize the sport, wrestling launched a series of Google+ Hangouts On Air featuring some of the top names in the wrestling community from around the world, including FILA President Nenad Lalovic. 11,948 viewers spanning 87 countries tuned in to the Keep Olympic Wrestling Google+ Hangout On Air events. 

Over 1,000 photos were sent in from around the globe to support the #TakeAStance initiative where wrestling supports take photos in a wrestling stance in random locations to support the sport. 

The wrestling community responded to the Feb. 12 announcement by the International Olympic Committee valiantly and played a major factor in wrestling’s reinstatement to the Olympics.


Olympic Fight Top 10 Countdown
10. Battle at the Falls
9. United 4 Wrestling
8. Social Media Charge
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