Explained: How to qualify for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics in Wrestling?

The Olympic Qualification System (OQS) for wrestling at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games has been officially confirmed by the United World Wrestling (UWW).

Wrestling will retain all its 18 weight categories for the LA Olympics – six each in men's freestyle, women's wrestling and men's Greco-Roman.

However, UWW has significantly revamped its Olympic qualification process for the 2028 LA Olympics to promote greater inclusivity.

Events & Quotas Available

There will be 16 quotas available in each of the 18 weight categories, confirmed only through qualification, as there is no host quota or universality Quota for wrestling.

The biggest change UWW has made to the Qualification Process is including quotas based on World Ranking events, and hence reducing the quotas of World Qualifiers to just one.

Here is the list of quotas on offer per category in each of the qualifying events of wrestling:

World Championships: 4 Quotas

The 2027 World Wrestling Championships will be the first qualifying event of the LA Olympics, offering 4 quota events per category. It means that all the 4 medallists will earn a quota.

These quotas belong to the National Olympic Committee and not individual athletes, which means the grappler who wins the quota won't be a sure-shot candidate to represent their country at the Olympics. 

Note: Only athletes whose NOC took part in the 2027 Senior Continental Championships will be able to participate in the 2027 Senior World Championships.

World Ranking: 3 Quotas

The second phase of qualification will start in early 2028, after all the continental championships and the ranking series events are concluded.

These events, alongside the 2027 continental championships and ranking series, will decide the World Rankings in each of the 18 categories.

Hence, after the conclusion of these events, three quota spots per category will be awarded to the NOCs that haven't won a quota at the World C'ships. 

Continental Qualifier: 2 per continent (Total 8)

After the allocation of ranking quota, there will be a continental qualifier in each of the four confederations - Europe, Asia, Pan-Am and a combined Africa & Oceania Qualifier.

Each of the categories will have athletes from only those NOCs that didn't have a quota in that particular category from the first two qualifiers.

The two finalists in each of the 18 weight classes across all these four Continental events will be awarded a quota.

World Qualifiers: 1 Quota

The final and most complicated qualifier is the world qualifiers, which is the final phase of the qualifying process for the Los Angeles Games.

The gold medal winners in each of the 18 categories will earn a quota for their respective nations.

But the biggest catch is that only the countries that have not won any quota in any discipline in any of the above mentioned qualifiers can send their players to the world qualifiers.

Even for these countries, there will be a country cap of just two athletes across all 18 categories, making it a diverse and most inclusive qualifier.

For example, if Antim Panghal wins a quota place for India at the World C'ships and none of the other Indian wrestlers wins any quota in ranking or continental qualifiers, then India will have only 1 wrestler at the Olympics, as they will not be allowed to send an athlete to the world qualifiers.

List of weight classes at LA Olympics:

Men's Freestyle: 57Kg, 65 Kg, 74 Kg, 86 Kg, 97Kg, 125Kg

Men's Greco-Roman: 60 Kg, 67Kg, 77Kg, 87Kg, 97Kg, 130 Kg

Women's Wrestling: 50Kg, 53Kg, 57Kg, 62Kg, 68Kg, 76Kg