14 Feb 2013

Sport: Wrestling community to fight for Olympic spot

11:26 am on 14 February 2013

The President of the American Samoa Wrestling Association says the decision to drop the sport from the Olympic programme is a big wake-up call.

The International Olympic Committee announced yesterday that wrestling won't feature in the 2020 Games, following a surprise recommendation by it's Executive Board.

The IOC has since played down the finality of its decision and the President of the American Samoa Association, Ethan Lake, says the fight to keep their place is only just beginning.

"If I had made a predicition for 2020, wrestling will be in there. There's no doubt in my mind and we're going to press on like that but it does wake up the wrestling community about what are we doing to make ourself more known? Part of it is, and this is our fault in the wrestling community that I will take responsibility for for our association, is that we've got to do more to market who we are. We're not about the fame and the glory, we're about pure, honest athleticism and unfortunately that doesn't always translate - you've got to market that out in a way that gets more people excited about it and that's what we need to do."