Nigeria’s quest to have Wrestling reinstated at the Olympics have been backed by many other countries that are equally contesting the decision to take wrestling away from Olympic sports.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) scrapped wrestling from the Olympics, which will take effect from 2020, with Nigeria protesting the exclusion of the sport by writing to the IOC.

Technical Director of the Nigeria Wrestling Federation, Daniel Igali revealed that USA, India, Russia, China and many other countries have joined the call to get IOC to rescind its decision.

Igali told Brila FM that some members of world wrestling governing body will first table their case to the IOC in Saint Petersburg, Russia, before making a final presentation on 7 September in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Only last week the National Sports Commission, NSC, wrote the IOC, on the need not to discard wrestling, as it had been around for a long time.

“Wrestling is a foundation sport in the Olympics and for us in Africa it is a traditional sport,’’ the DG of the NSC, Patrick Ekeji was quoted as saying.

“The fact that there were not enough sponsorship for the sport was not a good enough reason to eliminate it from the Olympics,” he said.