26 March 2003    Jacques Rogge  President  International Olympic Committee  Chateau de Vidy  CH-1007 Lausanne, Switzerland    Dear Mr. Rogge:    The decision by the IOC Executive Board to retain both the Freestyle and Greco-Roman styles of wrestling is welcomed news for the wrestling community. Your wisdom to see that each discipline is unique in its style, form and history is applauded. We always felt the findings of the Barcelona commission were flawed and full of misconceptions regarding our sport. But without representation within the IOC Exececutive Board or for that matter on the IOC in general, our fear was that we had no one to voice our cause.    The statement attached to the communiqué suggested that wrestling needed to make further reduction in the number of weight classes.  Our sport already has contributed significantly to the reduction in medals and number of participants. Wrestling has pared 30% of its men's medals since the 1996 Olympic Games. What's more, the quota for Athens of 140 athletes per style with the possibility of a few wildcard additions, represents a 40% reduction from the Games in Seoul when no quota existed.    I have attached a chart that shows the changes in the Olympic program, from the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games to the 2004 Athens Olympic Games. This chart clearly shows that wrestling has sacrificed more than any other sport in terms of reductions in medal opportunity and participating athletes.    In terms of medal events, wrestling has given up the most, with a reduction of 10% of the medals from the Atlanta Olympic Games to the Athens Olympic Games. Wrestling has lost the highest percentage of medal events, in spite of adding an additional opportunity for women to participate!! Please note that only two sports have reduced the number of medal events during this time frame - wrestling and boxing.    In regards to participating athletes, wrestling has again reduced its quota tremendously, with 15.27% fewer athletes in Athens in comparison to Atlanta. Again, this is in spite of adding 48 women athletes for the Athens Games. Only canoe/kayak, archery and boxing have given up a larger percentage of participants than wrestling over the last two Olympic cycles. Wrestling has already done its part in helping control the size of the Games.    Despite these reductions wrestling continues to offer the most diversity in nations winning medals. Wrestlers from 23 nations won medals in Sydney.  Only Athletics [44] and Shooting [26] had more nations garner medals.  Of course both Athletics and Shooting have more athletes and counties competing.    The unintended consequence of cutting weight classes has been the disenfranchising of countries and an introduction of a safety issues. With 10 weight categories in Atlanta, we had wrestlers from 74 nations compete. In Sydney, with 8 weight categories, only 54 nations sent qualifiers. It is folly to speculate how many more wrestlers from the 20 nations lost in the reduction would have won medals. It is not folly, however, to look at those countries that were disenfranchised.  Because of costs, cultures and body types; there are many countries whose hope and participation in the Olympic movement are limited. In order to maintain the Olympics as a truly global event, we need to embrace all participants. Wrestling is one of a few competitive events that provides this avenue. For example, North Korea often dominated the lighter weight classes. Today, because we have increased the lightest class from 48 kg. in 1996 to 55 kg. in 2004, we have eliminated a large segment of the world's population.    In order to meet the fewer number of categories, weight classes have to either be eliminated or the spread between classes must increase.  An elimination of a weight category removes opportunities for a segment of certain societies.  If we widen the difference between classes, we introduce a stress to use artificial means to reach a competitive weight. The use of performance enhancing drugs has been relatively low in wrestling and until recently almost non-existent. USA Wrestling is proud of the fact that we have never had a wrestler test positive for a performance enhancing substance in any World, Pan American or Olympic Games.  Our hope is that the IOC Executive Board will consider the consequences and reinstate the eighth weight classes.    If we return to 8 weight classes, we can still reduce our numbers of participants. Four continental championships could be held, each qualifying 4 wrestlers per weight class. This would reduce our numbers by roughly 10 % and provide for a straight-line championship bracket with a full consolation bracket to determine the bronze medal. This continental qualifier would also assure diversity among the participants. Less-developed countries in South America, Africa and Central America will have viable chances to qualify and ultimately medal.    Please consider wrestling in the broader role it can play in the Olympic movement.    Sincerely,      Stan Dziedzic  USA Wrestling President    cc:  Raphael Martinetti, FILA President  IOC members Anita DeFrantz, James Easton, Bob Ctvrtlik  attached: Appendix I    Click here for a PDF version of the appendix chart