Wrestling is a sport that is tied to the foundation of the Olympics.

It has been a part of every modern Olympic Games except 1900, and it will not be part of the 2016 games in Rio de Janeiro after the International Olympic Committee decided to take it off the program back in February.

But after a more than six month fight by the international wrestling body FILA to get the sport reinstated for future Olympic Games, it’s officially back.

The IOC announced Sunday that wrestling would return in 2020 for the summer games in Tokyo, and Panorama High School wrestling coach Jason Kirtley says he was elated with the decision.

“I got text message after text message after email about it, and I guess it showed me how popular our sport has gotten not only locally but nationally because if a lot of people don’t stick up for what we like then it goes by the wayside.  So, I was happy.”

Kirtley says he has spoken with many of the wrestlers on his team, and they too were excited by the IOC’s decision.  Many of the students on the team actually heard of the decision before their coach, and Kirtley says he’s glad they were engaged and paying attention during an important time for their sport.

After all, the Olympics are the level that wrestlers aspire to reach.

“Football has NFL players to look at as role models and basketball players have NBA players.  Wrestlers, they don’t really have anything.  They have college wrestlers to watch but after that, all we have is the Olympics.  Leaving it in there gives them perspectives and allows them to strive for something.  You know, there’s still something out there that maybe  they can accomplish if they continue to wrestle.”

Kirtley says that a lot of credit to getting wrestling back on the olympic slate goes to the person he termed the ‘Godfather of Iowa wrestling’…a man we all know, as Dan Gable.