ROH World Champion Chris Jericho wants to see professional wrestling become an official Olympic sport.
During a recent discussion on his Talk Is Jericho podcast, Jericho talked about how he wants to speak to the International Olympic Community to make his pitch for pro wrestling to become an official 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.”
Greco-Roman wrestling has been a Summer Olympics sport since the games began in 1896, with the exception of the 1900 Summer Olympics. Women’s wrestling was added to the games in 2004. The IOC voted to drop wrestling from the Summer Olympics in 2013, but officials from the sport’s governing body (FILA, now known as United World Wrestling) resigned from their positions in response. This led to several revisions being made to the wrestling program for the 2016 games, including more women’s competitions and rule changes. Wrestling was then re-admitted to the Summer Olympics program after a campaign.
WWE’s Gable Steveson took home a gold medal in the Men’s Freestyle 125 kg competition at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan.
The 2024 Summer Olympics will take place in Paris, France. It remains to be seen how serious Jericho is about his pitch.
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