The International Olympic Committee's announcement that the Olympics will drop wrestling as a sport in 2020 stunned many people—including Eric Anderson, head wrestling coach at Fridley High School:

I was completely shocked to hear those announcements. I lost a lot of respect for the Olympic Games. Wrestling was part of the Ancient Olympics and the Modern Olympics. There is still a chance for wrestling to be added back. Luckily we are a hard working group of people and efforts are already being made to bring the sport back.

Anderson also reflected by email on the 2012–13 wrestling season at FHS, and looked ahead to the coming weekend:

Fridley has enjoyed an excellent varsity season. Our program is also showing great promise at the youth and middle school level.  We completed the varsity dual season 11-15 and had a great Team Section Tournament. The #4 seeded Tigers earned a bye then advanced to the semifinals with an impressive 49-14 victory over Brooklyn Center. That momentum will be used this coming weekend as we host the Section 5AA Individual Section Tournament. Each of our wrestlers in the 14 weight classes has a great shot at placing in the top 6. The top 2 in each weight class advance to the state tournament.

What do you think about the Olympics dropping wrestling? Leave a comment below.

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