24 March 2003    Jacques Rogge  President  International Olympic Committee  Chateau de Vidy  CH-1007 Lausanne, Switzerland    Dear Mr. Rogge:    The announcement by the IOC Executive Board concerning its review of Olympic sports disciplines will have a significant affect on the most traditional Olympic sport of them all, wrestling. We applaud the decision of the Executive Board to retain both freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling.     However, the suggestion that wrestling needs to further reduce more medals awarded at the Olympic Games is unfair and unjustified. Additional cuts in the wrestling medal count may lead to wiping out the Olympic movement's oldest sport, even while it remains one of the most diverse and popular on the planet.    It is my intention to demonstrate to you why wrestling should not continue to sacrifice medal opportunities at the Olympic Games. Wrestling has been lowering its athlete quota ever since the 1992 Barcelona Games, and has already on two occasions reduced its medals awarded in order to satisfy IOC requests of controlling the size of the Games. Wrestling has more than done its share to support the desire to reduce the cost of the Olympics.    In fact, the 18 "medal events" currently awarded to wrestling is not sufficient, in regards to the addition of women's wrestling to the Olympics, as well as the consideration of safety for its participants.    Due to a remarkable lack of representation for wrestling on the International Olympic Committee, wrestling has been targeted unfairly and has sacrificed more than others. Many other sports have provided little or no reductions in the process of making the Games more efficient. It is time for the IOC to look to other sports in its efforts to cut back on the Olympic programme.    HISTORY    Wrestling has been with human civilization since its earliest cultures and continues to thrive through the modern era. Depictions of wrestling can be found in the most ancient of archeology, from the early Egyptians to cave drawings in Europe, to ancient sites in Asia. Wrestling has always been a part of society, and always will be.    Wrestling was one of the only sports to be included in the ancient Greek Olympic Games, and was considered the most prestigious of the disciplines. Wrestling continued to be practiced during the era between the ancient Olympics and the creation of the modern Olympics. Greco-Roman wrestling was featured in the first Olympic Games in Athens in 1896. Freestyle wrestling was added to the Olympics in 1904. Wrestling has played an important role in the development of the modern Olympic Games, and has provided some of its greatest moments. Most recently, the victory by American Rulon Gardner over the previously unbeaten Alexander Kareline was considered by many the most important moment of the entire Sydney Olympic Games.    FILA, the international wrestling federation, has managed international wrestling since 1912. There are currently 144 or more affiliated national wrestling federations in FILA, with wrestling championships and activities on every continent. Even more cultures practice their own "traditional" styles of wrestling, which have roots in their ancient cultures. Women's wrestling has developed in the last three decades, and has grown dramatically among wrestling nations. A system of National, Continental and World Championships has been developed to identify the greatest wrestlers in the world among men and women.    As the IOC Executive Board has most recently confirmed, wrestling has two distinct and unique styles which are worthy of inclusion in the Olympic Games: freestyle and Greco-Roman. There is a major difference between the execution of these styles. In freestyle, you may use your entire body in executing and defending techniques. In Greco-Roman, you may not use or touch the legs while competing. This one major difference makes freestyle and Greco-Roman different in so many ways. The styles do not look at all alike. The techniques and strategies for the disciplines are also very different. Each style has its own history. Many nations compete in both styles, but some nations and cultures have one style that they prefer and excel in.  The athletes and coaches are different between the styles: in order to excel in either freestyle or Greco-Roman, an athlete must specialize in that unique discipline.     SAFETY    Wrestling is a sport that should be available to individuals of all physical characteristics and sizes as well as to all nationalities and cultures. Because of the weight class structure, from short and light athletes through large and heavy athletes, anybody can participate in wrestling. It should provide all individuals across the world an opportunity to test themselves and seek excellence.    The reason that there are different weight classes in wrestling is for fairness and safety. Athletes compete against those of a similar weight, which provides a true test of abilities. Because of the importance of strength, leverage and control, a difference in weight can provide a distinct  advantage to the heavier athlete. A large spread of weight can also make the sport less safe for the lighter competitor.    Wrestling is different than many other "weight-class sports" due to fairness and safety factors. It differs from the striking sports (such as taekwondo, boxing, karate and others) which can have larger weight class spreads and still be fair and safe. In these sports, you can find athletes moving between weight divisions and still being very successful. In wrestling, if you spread the weight divisions too far apart or eliminate weight divisions, you make the sport less fair and less safe. In fact, when you eliminate weight divisions, you truly eliminate the opportunity for many people to participate in wrestling based entirely on their size and weight. When wrestling changed its lightest weight class, from 48 kg for 1996 to 54 kg  for 2000 to 55 kg for 2004, numerous athletes were taken out of the sport forever.    In a study on weight loss in wrestling, the American College of Sports Medicine considered safety issues in the sport and issued a position stand. The ACME encourages "adding weight classes," especially in the lighter and middle weights. The current trend of reducing weight classes, caused by IOC demands to reduce wrestling's events, goes against the medical recommendations of experts as well as the spirit of fair play.    MEDALS, QUOTAS, INTERNATIONAL PARTICIPATION    The idea that wrestling has too many medals and has not contributed enough towards making the Olympic Games more efficient is misguided. If anything, the sport of wrestling has done as much or more than any other sport in terms of cutting back on its number of athletes and medal opportunities. The time has come for the International Olympic Committee to investigate other sports that have not done their fair share of reductions. Wrestling has given all that it can give.    Consider medals. During the modern Olympics, there has been many changes in the number of medal opportunities in wrestling as well as in all Olympic sports. It makes sense to look at the Olympic Games in the last half century to understand the current trends in medal numbers.    Starting with the 1972 Munich Olympics through the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, wrestling remained stable with 20 gold medal opportunities: 10 in freestyle wrestling and 10 in Greco-Roman wrestling. At the 2000 Sydney Games, the number of medals was cut to 8 in freestyle wrestling and 8 in Greco-Roman wrestling. At the 2004 Athens Games, the number of medals per style will be 7 for men's freestyle and 7 for men's Greco-Roman. This is a cut-back of 30% of the available medals for men in just two Olympic cycles.    The 2004 Athens Games will include women wrestlers for the first time, with 4 sets of medals. However, this is not sufficient, for the same fairness and safety reasons of the men. Although the number of women's weight classes have changed a number of times at the World Championships, there are currently 7 weight classes in international women's wrestling.     Wrestling has given up 30% of its men's medal