IOC staff were in attendance at a wrestling demonstration at UWW's headquarters in Switzerland ©UWW

Employees from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) were treated to a demonstration of wrestling at the headquarters of United World Wrestling (UWW) in Corsier-sur-Vevey, Switzerland.

UWW President Nenad Lalović, made an IOC member earlier this year, and general secretary Michel Dusson were in attendance for the event along with IOC sports director Kit McConnell and director of legal affairs Michael Stupp.

Stupp himself is a former wrestler and represented Canada at the 1976 Olympic Games on home soil in Montreal and at Moscow 1980.

The demonstration was led by Switzerland's Greco-Roman coach Andrey Maltsev, who was joined by assistant coach Lena Maltseva and eight-times national champion Nadine Tokar.

Tokar oversaw a wrestling session which included warm-ups, technique and sparring.

Wrestling has been a part of every Olympics since the 1900 event in Paris but was briefly cut from the programme in February 2013, before being reinstated in September of the same year after beating baseball/softball and squash with 49 votes to ensure it maintained its place in the Games after Rio 2016. 

UWW President and IOC member Nenad Lalovic was in attendance at the demonstration
UWW President and IOC member Nenad Lalović was in attendance at the demonstration ©Getty Images

The demonstration came after a major new bidding process for all United World Wrestling events for 2018, 2019 and 2020 was launched at the recent Smart Cities & Sport Summit in Lausanne.

This included applications for both the 2018 and 2019 World Championships, as well as Greco-Roman, freestyle and women's freestyle World Cup events in each of those three years.

Invitations were accepted for three editions of the Golden Grand Prix as well as Junior and Cadet World Championships and a raft of continental events aimed at all age-groups across Africa, Asia, Europe, Oceania and the Americas.

This totalled more than 50 events, billed as a major opportunity for cities to take advantage of the upward curve currently being enjoyed by the sport.



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