WASHINGTON (AP) — If wrestling wants to get back into the Olympics, it needs to master another sport: politics.

It was only appropriate, therefore, that the cause made its way to the nation's capital on Thursday.

Olympic champions Rulon Gardner and Henry Cejudo and others made their pitch at an event that celebrated the sport's place on the world scene.

The International Olympic Committee kicked wrestling out in February, starting with the 2020 Games. But the sport can work its way back in by beating out seven other sports vying for one available spot on the summer schedule.

Gardner said the sport needs to make reforms and do a better job of making friends within the IOC.

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