New women's classes added to 2016 Rio Olympics program

Source:Xinhua Published: 2013-12-18 10:27:10

Wrestling's world governing body Tuesday announced that two women's classes will be added to the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics as men's freestyle and Greco-Roman will each lose a weight class.

This change, going into effect in 2014, will ensure a 6-6-6 split among the three disciplines.

Now the light classes in men's freestyle will be 57 and 65 kilograms instead of 55kg, 60kg and 66kg while in Greco-Roman, the two light classes are now 59kg and 66kg rather than 55kg, 60kg and 66kg in London Olympics.

Freestyle middleweight will remain 74kg, followed by 86, 97 and 125kg for heavyweights. Greco-Roman wrestlers will also compete at 75, 85, 98 and 130kg.

Women's freestyle was introduced for the 2004 Olympics and competed at 48, 55, 63 and 72kg in London last summer. They will wrestle at 48, 53, 58, 63, 69 and 75kg in the 2016 Games.

Wrestling sport was dropped from the list of Olympic core sports in February, but was reinstated in September after changes intended to modernize wrestling.

Posted in: Olympics

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