USA, Iran Wrestling Teams To Compete In Historic Event

LOS ANGELES, April 26, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- USA Wrestling and Beat the Streets-Los Angeles, Inc. has announced that the United States and Iran will come together in a friendly international wrestling competition Sunday, May 19 at 2 p.m. at Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena. The event will also be a major opportunity for the Keep Olympic Wrestling movement and the 2020 Vision: Wrestling, Keep the Dream Alive campaign. The match is being staged in cooperation with California USA Wrestling.

On Feb. 12, the International Olympic Committee Executive Board made a recommendation that wrestling not be a core sport at the 2020 Olympic Games. A final decision on the program of the 2020 Olympics will be made by the entire IOC in September. A worldwide effort has been launched by FILA and all 177 nations which participate in wrestling to retain wrestling as an Olympic sport.

Billed "United 4 Wrestling," the event will be a showcase competition as part of World Wrestling Month, which was declared by the international wrestling federation (FILA). "We are elated to bring together these nations in this historic friendly competition," said Beat the Streets-Los Angeles President Andy Barth. "This illustrates how the great sport of wrestling can enable countries from across the world to put aside their differences and create a common bond. 'United 4 Wrestling' will be an event that will demonstrate the broad impact and popularity of wrestling, as a sport, as a tool for diplomacy and as a means to raise funding for the inner-city kids who participate through wrestling in our year-round youth development 'Beat the Streets-Los Angeles' program."

Sponsoring the "United 4 Wrestling" event in Los Angeles is the Semnani Family Foundation, an international humanitarian organization based in Salt Lake City and founded by Khosrow Semnani, a prominent Iranian-American philanthropist. "For hundreds of thousands of Iranian-Americans – in L.A. and beyond – the 'United 4 Wrestling' event offers a chance to celebrate and defend wrestling as an Olympic sport and tradition," Semnani said. "Beyond wrestling, these athletes, American and Iranian, embody standards of excellence and a code of sportsmanship that unites us around a culture of fair play. They remind us of the deeper ways in which the Olympic Games bind Iran and America, our ancestral and adopted homelands, as one. Whether it is in philanthropy, sports, medicine, business, culture or education, we Iranian-Americans are more than willing to do our part so that instead of growing up as strangers, future generations of Iranians and Americans can benefit from more of these people-to-people exchanges. "

The USA vs. Iran dual meet will feature the current international freestyle wrestling rules. Lineups will be released when available.