Right before the state wrestling tournament, the International Olympic Committee announced that wrestling would not be an Olympic sport in 2020.

But yesterday, the Iowa High School Athletic Association sent a mass email stating that they are backing a motion to argue the idea.

It talks about how wrestling is a high interest sport in Iowa, and that it holds the largest state tournament in America, and that they believe that getting rid of wrestling at the Olympic level hurts it at every level under it.

Assistant Executive director with the Iowa High School Athletic Association Alan Beste said they didn’t release this statement until now, because they were waiting for a board meeting, that could happen until this late. He also said that the plan is to support wrestling the best they can, but in the mean time they will continue to promote and develop the scholastic programs that they have.

“We know that many of them have aspirations of competing beyond the high school level, whether that be at the collegiate level, or at the Olympic level, but there are many other that participate knowing that when they step off that mat the last time as high school students that is going to be the end of their formal wrestling career,” Beste said. “So the only thing we can do is continue to support the movement, to ‘Lets Keep Wrestling,’ make the official statement as we have, and to continue to provide programs that we hope will draw students to continue to participate in high school programs.”

In the history of Iowa wrestling, other than Dan Gable and high school, The University of Iowa and Iowa State have multiple Div. I National titles, and Wartburg college, under the coaching of the retiring Jim Miller just won their third consecutive national title in Div. III.

You can find the full letter released by the state at IAHSAA.com.