In the midst of preparing to coach freestyle wrestling at the Olympic games, ISU head wrestling coach Bobby Douglas received good news regarding future international wrestling events.

Rich Bender, executive director of USA Wrestling, announced that Iowa State will host the 2005 World Team Trials on June 16-19 in Hilton Coliseum.

“USA Wrestling is thrilled to award the 2005 World Team Trials to Ames, Iowa, and Iowa State University,” Bender said. “We are confident the community of Ames and Iowa State University will provide our athletes and fans from around the country an excellent wrestling experience.”

The trials, a complement of the Olympic Team Trials in non-Olympic years, is the preliminary competition before the world championships.

Douglas said he and ISU wrestling are excited to host the Trials.

“The national wrestling trials for freestyle, [Greco-Roman and women’s wrestling] are scheduled for Ames, Iowa, next year,” Douglas said at a press conference earlier this month. “We are excited about bringing the wrestle-offs to Iowa State.”

Bender said Iowa State’s experience with handling large wrestling events made the university a perfect fit for the 2005 trials.

“With [Iowa State’s] experience in hosting the 2004 Big 12 Wrestling Championships as well as past NCAA Championships, we are confident they will do an outstanding job in displaying this country’s great wrestling talent,” he said.

Douglas said he would ultimately like to see the this event develop into an opportunity to host the 2008 Olympic Trials.

“We hope to parlay that into the final Olympic trials in 2008,” Douglas said.

“That’s what our goal is, and we think we will have a number of people in contention for the team in 2008.”