How nations qualify participants in wrestling for the 2004 Athens Olympic Games

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Gary Abbott (USA Wrestling)
11/06/2003


At the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, there will be 344 wrestlers total. This includes 280 men (140 each for men's freestyle and men's Greco-Roman) and 48 women and 16 wrestlers whose gender is not yet specified.    There are seven weight classes for men's freestyle, seven weight classes for men's Greco-Roman and four weight classes for women's freestyle.     That means each men's weight division will have 20 athletes and each women's weight division will have 12 athletes. There are an additional 16 wrestling spots that could increase the size of the weight class in some cases.    The most important qualifier is the 2003 World Championships in each style. There are 10 men athletes and five women athletes from each weight class that qualify their nations for the Olympics from the 2003 World Championships.    There will be two more additional Olympic Qualifiers for each style, held during February and March 2004. Only nations that are not qualified at each specific weight class can enter these events. For the men, the first qualifier adds five nations to the field at each division, and the second qualifier adds four. For the women, each qualifier adds three nations to each weight class.    Please remember that the athletes do not qualify themselves for the Games, they qualify their nation. Each nation may choose to enter whatever athlete they want at their qualified weight classes in the Athens Games. No nation may enter more than one athlete in each weight class, which has always been the case in wrestling.    We will show the qualification numbers from each of the Olympic qualifying events, by style.    MEN'S FREESTYLE (20 per weight division)  2003 World Championships in New York City, Sept. 12-14, 2003* - 10 qualify per weight  Athlete from host Greece - 1 qualify per weight  Men's Freestyle Olympic Qualifier, Bratislava, Slovakia, Feb. 1-2, 2004 - 5 qualify per weight  Men's Freestyle Olympic Qualifier, Sofia, Bulgaria, Feb. 14-15, 2004 - 4 qualify per weight    *- if an athlete from Greece places in the top 10 of any division at Worlds, the 11th place athlete in that division qualifies his nation as well.  Men's Olympic weight classes: 55 kg, 60 kg, 66 kg, 74 kg, 84 kg, 96 kg, 120 kg    MEN'S GRECO-ROMAN (20 per weight division)  2003 World Championships in Cretiel, France, Oct. 2-5, 2003* - 10 qualify per weight  Athlete from host Greece - 1 qualify per weight  Men's Greco-Roman Olympic Qualifier, Novi-Sad, Serbia Montenegro, Feb. 28-29, 2004 - 5 qualify per weight  Men's Greco-Roman Olympic Qualifier, Tashkent, Uzbekistan, March 13-14, 2004 - 4 qualify per weight    *- if an athlete from Greece places in the top 10 of any division at Worlds, the 11th place athlete in that division qualifies his nation as well.  Men's Olympic weight classes: 55 kg, 60 kg, 66 kg, 74 kg, 84 kg, 96 kg, 120 kg    WOMEN'S FREESTYLE (12 per weight division)  2003 World Championships in New York City, Sept. 12-14, 2003* - 5 qualify per weight  Athlete from host Greece - 1 qualify per weight  Women's Freestyle Olympic Qualifier, Tunis, Tunisia, March 6-7 - 3 qualify per weight  Women's Freestyle Olympic Qualifier, Madrid, Spain, March 20-21 - 3 qualify per weight    *- if a women's athlete from Greece places in the top 5 of any division at Worlds, the 6th place athlete in that division qualifies her nation as well.  Women's Olympic weight classes: 48 kg, 55 kg, 63 kg, 72 kg