International wrestling facing most important stretch in history

Two years ago, international wrestling survived a threat of ouster from the Olympics.

Now, after a major revamping of its rules and leadership, the sport is looking beyond fighting for survival to showcasing itself.

The U.S. Senior Open, national championships of U.S. wrestling, will be held Friday and Saturday in Las Vegas. From Sept. 7-12, Las Vegas will host the 2015 Wrestling World Championships.

Then it's on to Brazil for the 2016 Olympics.

"This stretch, however many months this is until the Rio Games, is arguably the most important stretch for wrestling at the international level in our history," Rich Bender, executive director of USA Wrestling, said in a phone interview.

"Coming off the challenge in '13 … it's rare air for our sport, a rare opportunity that we've never had before. I think the entire community wants the same thing, and that's for wrestling to take a step forward.''

In early 2013, wrestling was shockingly cut from the Olympics, beginning in 2020. The International Olympic Committee cited lack of global participation and popular appeal.

Seven months later in Argentina, wrestling won reinstatement.

There have been made changes in the rules and match formats. Matches now consist of two three-minute periods. Most points win.

Under the previous system, it was best-of-three periods. Each period was scored separately.

Whoever won two periods won the match. It was confusing. A wrestler could win period one 5-0, then lose 1-0 and 1-0 and lose the match.

Takedowns became worth two points instead of one and points were awarded for pushing a foe out of the circle. That was to encourage action.

Also scrapped was the ball draw in which at the end of a tied period a wrestler (dressed in a blue or red singlet) would pull a red or blue ball out of a bag. If they pulled their own color, that wrestler got the advantage in a tie-breaking clinch.

"It was the dark days of our sport," said Bender. " … In London, Olympic champions were determined by who pulled the right color ball out of a bag."

Raphael Martinetti resigned as president of FILA, the international federation of wrestling. He was replaced by Nenad Lalovic of Serbia, now president of newly named United World Wrestling.

"Our sport was struggling for relevancy because of leadership at the international level," said Bender.

At past Olympics, there were seven weight classes in men's freestyle and men's Greco-Roman and four in women's freestyle. Now, each discipline has six Olympic spots.

"There's obviously some that didn't like that, giving up a men's weight class for the women," said Bender. " … I personally think that women's wrestling deserves the same status, but not at the expense of men necessarily."

But Bender said 1972 Olympic wrestling gold medalist Dan Gable put it best.

"Like Gable said, '6-6-6 sure sounds a lot better to me than 0-0-0,' '' said Bender.

Clarissa Chun, 2012 Olympic bronze medalist at 105.75 pounds, is among those expected to compete this weekend.

Jordan Burroughs, 2012 gold medalist in the 165.4-pound class of men's freestyle, is not entered in the U.S. Senior Open. He's assured a spot in the world team trials in June because of his bronze medal at the last world championship.

But former Penn State star David Taylor, expected to be a prime challenger to Burroughs in the world and Olympic trials, is the top seed in Las Vegas at 165.4 pounds in freestyle.

Jake Varner, another 2012 Olympic champion, is the top seed at 213 pounds in men's freestyle.