Illinois lawmakers are "weighing in" on Olympic organizers' decision to drop wrestling from the summer games. The Illinois House and Senate passed resolutions encouraging the International Olympic Committee to reinstate wrestling as an Olympic sport.
Former U-S House Speaker Denny Hastert made a special appearance in Springfield for it. Hastert was a wrestling coach in Yorkville before he went on to Congress. He says it's important to give young people the opportunity to reach for an Olympic dream.
"And for a, I think a wrongheaded decision made by the International Olympic Committee, which is all internal politics of people who didn't have constituencies -- they happen to be princes, and sisters of kings and sheiks and those types of people but we need to send them a message,” Hastert says.
The House sponsor of the resolution says there are 17-thousand student wrestlers in Illinois, and it's a sport at 18 Illinois universities.