IOC: Already Qualified Athletes Will Keep Spots At 2021 Olympic Games

IOC: Already Qualified Athletes Will Keep Spots At 2021 Olympic Games

The International Olympic Committee has announced that any spots already qualified for the now 2021 Games in Tokyo will be honored.

Mar 28, 2020 by Wrestling Nomad
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Good news for the athletes who have already qualified their nation for the Olympics: their qualifications will be honored.

According to a report by Karolos Grohmann for Reuters, the International Olympic Committee said, "All athletes who had qualified for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics will keep their spots for the Games."

This is huge for USA Wrestling, which had already locked 15 out of 18 weights for the now-postponed Tokyo Games. Team USA qualified four weights at last year's World Championships and another 11 at the recent Pan American Olympic Games qualifier in Ottawa, Canada.

Below is a list of weights America has already qualified, arranged by style.

Men's Freestyle

  • 57kg
  • 74kg
  • 86kg
  • 97kg
  • 125kg

Women's Freestyle

  • 50kg
  • 53kg
  • 57kg
  • 62kg
  • 68kg
  • 76kg

Greco-Roman

  • 60kg
  • 67kg
  • 87kg
  • 97kg

That leaves just 65kg for men's freestyle and both 77kg and 130kg for Greco left to qualify. We do not know a timeline for the last chance qualifier yet or whether it will be before or after Olympic Trials, but it is good that the work of the 15 athletes will be upheld.

According to the report, an IOC official indicated the allocations for each sport will not change. For wrestling, there are 288 qualifying slots that need to be filled. Half of those are accounted for in our sport already after last year's World Championships in Kazakhstan and the Pan Am qualifier. It appears most sports are in the same boat, with a little over half of their spots accounted for.

“The 57% that are qualified do remain in place and the goal is to maintain the same athletes quotas across the different sports."