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Wrestling 101: Olympic qualifying

After winning gold at the Tokyo Games, David Taylor is seeking to represent the United States in Olympic wrestling once more. (Usa Today Sports)

Wrestling qualification is well underway for the 2024 Paris Games, but many spots remain up for grabs at a series of Olympic qualifying tournaments still to come.

How many wrestlers qualify for the 2024 Olympics?

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There are 18 different weight classes in Olympic wrestling (six each for Greco-Roman, men's freestyle and women's freestyle), and each class will have 16 wrestlers competing in Paris. In total, that makes 288 athletes who will qualify to compete in wrestling at these Olympic Games.

Each country is limited to one athlete per weight class, so if any country were to qualify in every weight class, they would be able to take a full team of 18 wrestlers.

How do wrestlers qualify for the 2024 Olympics?

There are three phases to Olympic wrestling qualification. In each phase, athletes earn quota spots for their country, not for themselves. Each country can then decide which athlete(s) to give their quota spot(s) to.

Each qualification phase is explained in more detail below:

Phase 1: 2023 World Championships
September 2023

The top-five wrestlers from each Olympic weight class earned quota spots for Paris 2024. This includes all four medalists in each weight class, plus the winner of an extra bout that was contested between the losers of the two bronze-medal matches.

Phase 2: Continental Qualification Tournaments
February – April 2024

Four continental tournaments — Pan American, European, Asian, African/Oceania — will be held to decide the next batch of Olympic qualifiers. At each of the tournaments, the top-two athletes in each weight class will earn quota spots for Paris 2024.

Phase 3: World Qualification Tournament
May 2024

Countries that have not yet earned quota spots will compete in one final tournament. The top-three wrestlers in each weight class will secure quota spots for their countries. (The third quota spot will be decided by an extra bout contested between the winners of the two bronze medal matches.)

How do wrestlers qualify for Team USA?

U.S. Olympic Wrestling Trials will be held April 19-20 at Penn State University. In weight classes where the U.S. has already earned a quota spot, the winners of Trials will be part of the Olympic team in Paris. In non-qualified weight classes, the winners of Trials will go to the World Qualification Tournament in May to try to secure the quota spot for themselves.


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