ROH World Champion Chris Jericho wants professional wrestling to be recognized as an Olympic sport.
During a recent episode of his Talk Is Jericho podcast, Jericho discussed how he plans to approach the International Olympic Committee to make his case for pro wrestling to be recognized as an Olympic sport.
“I literally want to go in front of the IOC, the International Olympic Community, and pitch pro wrestling as an Olympic sport. Now, you might go, ‘How can you do that? It’s all,’ now, hold on. Stop right there. Gymnastics, pairs gymnastics, figure skating, pairs figure skating, what is that? It’s two people working together to put on the best performance possible … There is no way we could not do the same with pro wrestling.”
With the exception of the 1900 Summer Olympics, Greco-Roman wrestling has been a Summer Olympics sport since the games’ inception in 1896. Wrestling for women was added to the games in 2004. In 2013, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) voted to remove wrestling from the Summer Olympics, but officials from the sport’s governing body (FILA, now known as United World Wrestling) resigned in protest. This prompted several changes to the wrestling program for the 2016 Olympics, including more women’s competitions and rule changes. After a campaign, wrestling was re-admitted to the Summer Olympics program.
Gable Steveson of WWE won the Men’s Freestyle 125 kg gold medal at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan.
The Summer Olympics in 2024 will be held in Paris, France. It’s unclear how serious Jericho is about his pitch.
You can listen to the latest Talk is Jericho below:
