FILA wants seven women's weight classes for Rio

I / London August 11, 2012, 14:44 IST

The president of the governing body of international wrestling says he wants to see the number of weight categories contested in women's wrestling at the Olympics to increase from four to seven by the Rio Games in 2016.

Raphael Martinetti, the president of the International Federation of Associated Wrestling Styles (FILA), says the International Olympic Committee had previously rejected adding three women's categories.

Martinetti says the IOC had done so because it didn't want to have more than a total of 10,000 athletes at the Olympics.

But Martinetti says the body will start a new process in September in hopes of convincing the IOC to allow seven women's weight classes at the Rio Games.

Seven weight classes are contested in men's freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling at the Olympics.