Gov. Terry Branstad on Monday discussed wrestling being saved as an Olympic sport.

According to a press release, Branstad is on a trade mission in Tokyo, and while on a media conference call from abroad, he said wrestling is a sport many Iowans hold in high esteem.

“As you know, we’ve been working on this — LetsKeepWrestling.com — we launched that last winter,” he said in the release. “We’ve gotten a tremendous response: More than 25,000 people joined in our efforts. I recruited other governors to join. We had 30-some other governors who wrote to the International Olympic Committee in support of wrestling. And so, these two decisions made in Buenos Aires are great for Tokyo and certainly great for the state of Iowa and the future of the Olympics, so we are very excited about that.”

Branstad also noted the decision for the 2020 Olympic Games to be hosted in Tokyo.

“They’re very excited,” he said in the release. “This is great news for Japan. We’re proud to be here with them for this big announcement. It was tremendously well-received by everybody.”

— by Cassidy Riley