Hundreds of wrestlers descend on Vancouver for international festival

VANCOUVER – The second annual Vancouver International Wrestling Festival is taking place at Robson Square this weekend.

The event was created last year, as a local response to the International Olympic Committee’s recommendation to remove wrestling from the Olympic Games.

Close to 300 competitors, including several former Olympians from Canada and the U.S. compete in the festival.

“They essentially picked a fight with not ballerinas, but wrestlers,” said Andrew Cook, wrestling coach, Mt. Vernon, WA. “And so, as a wrestling community worldwide we’ve banned together to save wrestling in the Olympics and just this last September, we were passed as a preliminary sport. So we’re back into the Games through the 2020 Games.”