There's been a lot of buzz this spring around qualification licenses for the Olympic Games. The process has existed since the 1996 Olympic Games, but it's become more difficult as weight classes in each men’s discipline have been reduced and the landscape of international wrestling continues to evolve—for example, the breakup of the Soviet Union before the 1992 Olympic Games. Soviet bloc countries took years to organize their wrestling federations, which added to global depth and made it difficult to earn qualification among many more top-level competitors in fewer weight classes across the board.

2015 World Championships 

For this Olympiad, the first set of licenses were issued at the 2015 World Championships, where competitors that wrestled in a medal match earned their country a spot in Rio. That distributed six of the 19 licenses at each weight on the men’s side and six of 18 on the women’s side.

The U.S. only qualified five of the 18 weight classes at the World Championships. For the men’s freestyle team, world titles from Jordan Burroughs and Kyle Snyder qualified 74kg and 97kg, respectively. Andy Bisek’s bronze, along with Robby Smith’s fifth-place finish, qualified 75kg and 130kg. The lone qualifier on the women’s side, Adeline Gray won the world title at 75kg. Medals earned by Helen Maroulis, James Green, and Leigh Jaynes-Provisor were all at non-Olympic weights, so they did not factor into the qualifying process.

Russia’s men’s freestyle team was the only delegation to earn qualification in all six Olympic weight classes at the world championships. In fact, they medalled at every Olympic weight, and earned a gold, silver and four bronze medals in the six classifications.

2016 Continental Championships

The continental championships were the next stop in the qualifying procedure. Four tournaments each yielded two more qualifiers for each weight class. The U.S. qualifies through the Pan-Am Olympic Games Qualifier, and earned four more qualification spots in Frisco, Texas. Tony Ramos and Tervel Dlagnev took spots at 57kg and 125kg for men’s freestyle. Jordan Holm qualified 85kg in Greco-Roman, and Erin Clodgo was the lone women’s freestyle qualifier at 63kg.

The Canadian women’s freestyle team stole the show, and landed four qualification spots to round out a full six-pack to Rio, as they already earned two spots at the 2015 World Championships.

2016 World Qualification Tournament: Mongolia

After the Asian, African and Oceania, and European Continental qualifiers, the remaining unqualified countries came together for two world qualification tournaments. The first, held in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, distributed three licenses at each weight class on the men’s side and two for the women. The finalist, along with a true bronze, wrestled between the two repechage winners, earned qualification in both men’s disciplines. The women only qualified the finalists as they only had 18 spots available at each weight class in Rio.

The U.S. earned three spots in Mongolia. J’Den Cox earned qualification at 86kg in men’s freestyle, while Haley Augello and Helen Maroulis qualified the opening two women’s weight classes of 48kg and 53kg.

Two weight classes just missed out in Mongolia. RaVaughn Perkins lost in both the semifinals and the true bronze medal match just out of qualification for Greco-Roman at 66kg. Tamyra Mensah lost a controversial semifinal to miss qualifying the women’s 69kg weight class.

2016 World Qualification Tournament: Turkey

At the second Olympic Games World Qualifier in Istanbul, Turkey, two spots were available in each weight class. Jesse Thielke was the lone qualifier for the U.S. He qualified 59kg Greco-Roman to round out the contingent headed to Rio (so we thought).

Several athletes of previously qualified countries were present in Istanbul, leading to speculation of doping violations. This was the case, and Frank Molinaro earned qualification at 65kg when the athletes caught for doping were removed from the field (read all about the qualification replacements here).

When the final tallies came in, Russia led the way with 17 of 18 weight classes qualified for the Olympic Games. The U.S., Turkey, and Azerbaijan all followed behind Russia with 14 licenses for the Olympic Games in Rio. Several countries were able to qualify all six weight classes for a full roster in the discipline. Russia and Iran did this in both men’s disciplines, while Canada and Japan were the only countries to qualify all six women’s weight classes.

Countries With The Most Licenses For Rio

Country	Men's Freestyle	Women's Freestyle	Greco Roman	Total Qualifiers
Russia	6	5	6	17
Azerbaijan	6	3	5	14
Turkey	6	5	3	14
United States	6	4	4	14
China	3	5	5	13
Iran	6	0	6	12
Kazakhstan	5	4	3	12

 

Countries With Full Teams Competing In Rio

Country
Azerbaijan	Men's Freestyle
Canada		Women's Freestyle
Egypt			Greco Roman
Georgia	Men's Freestyle
Iran	Men's Freestyle		Greco Roman
Japan		Women's Freestyle
Mongolia	Men's Freestyle
Russia	Men's Freestyle		Greco Roman
Turkey	Men's Freestyle
United States	Men's Freestyle

Note: Countries with licenses may send whatever representative their delegation chooses to the Olympic Games. The wrestler that qualified the weight may not be the representative in Rio. That will happen at several weight classes for the U.S. Elena Pirozhkova (WM 63kg), Ben Provisor (GR 85kg), and Daniel Dennis (FS 57kg) will all represent the U.S. in Rio after the weight was qualified by another competitor.