CORALVILLE — Sometimes hard work pays off. That was the case for Think Iowa City President Josh Schamberger. He has spent more than four years working behind the scenes to build international relationships, lead negotiations, and navigate the complexities of visas and political headwinds to make a dream come true.
Schamberger and his colleague, Luke Eustice, Iowa City Area Sports Commission Director, led the charge to make this happen.
Eustice was an All-American wrestler for the University of Iowa. “He shares my passion and perseverance for going after and ultimately landing the first Freestyle World Cup event to put men and women on the same international stage,” Schamberger said.
The 2022 Freestyle World Cup in Coralville will feature athletes from around the world, marking the culmination of years of meticulous planning that began in 2018 in Switzerland.
Why Switzerland? Schamberger had traveled to Dübendorf, Switzerland to finalize contracts for the 2020 UCI Cyclocross World Championships—another international event that’s previously been hosted in Iowa City during the Jingle Cross Cycling Festival.
While in the country, Schamberger stopped in Vevey, Switzerland to visit the United World Wrestling (UWW) headquarters and discuss the Wrestling World Cup. UWW had put out an inquiry to see if the United States would be open to hosting the World Cup again.
“After hosting a successful event in 2018 at Carver Hawkeye Arena for the men, we really felt the product could be better,” Schamberger said. “We knew there was something we could tweak.”
Think Iowa City agreed to host the Wrestling World Cup for a second time, but with a significant change to the event: allowing men and women to compete side by side for the first time ever.
“If it was just going to be another men’s World Cup, we wouldn’t have done it. But because we have an opportunity to tie our legacy to the advancement and growth of equity in women’s wrestling, particularly on the front end of the first-ever university women’s wrestling team, we were all in.”
The conversation was tabled in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Then during the World Wrestling Championships in Oslo, Norway in 2021, Think Iowa City put forth a bid again to host the World Cup. The bid was approved, along with the proposed change to include both men’s and women’s freestyle wrestling.
“I’m most excited about all the little girls that are going to be there,” Schamberger said. “They’ll be able to look up on stage and see one of the best women from Ukraine wrestling one of the best women from the United States and think, ‘I could be up there crushing it someday.’”
The 2018 World Cup was held in Iowa City in April. This year, the timing of the event, which is set by United World Wrestling (UWW), pushed it to December. “It’s a busy time for people with the holidays and in the middle of high school wrestling season, but we hope people will recognize what a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity this is, whether you love wrestling or just want to be part of the cultural experience of seeing these athletes come together,” Eustice said.
No matter the outcome, the World Cup will be an exceptional experience for fans and for the community, Schamberger said. If it’s anything like the 2018 World Cup, this year’s event will have a large economic impact on the area. Organizers expect thousands of wrestling fans to fill the stands, including hundreds of people from around the world, and tens of thousands of fans tuning in from their home countries.
Schamberger and Eustice felt confident putting Iowa City in the limelight because of the area’s welcoming reputation. “Given the political climate, making everyone feel welcome creates a challenge that evolves every day with world events,” he said. “But in Iowa City, critical discourse is revered. The respect that I see day in and day out on all sorts of issues is something I’m super proud of and I’m honored to represent. It’s why Iowa City/Coralville is the perfect place to host this international event.”
About the World Cup
Men’s and women’s freestyle World Cup wrestlers from the United States, Ukraine, Japan, China, Georgia, Iran, and Mongolia will compete on the international stage in Coralville, Iowa, Dec. 9-11. The World Cup is the annual international dual-meet championships. The top five countries to qualify for the Men’s Freestyle World Cup include the United States, Iran, Japan, Georgia, and Mongolia. The top five countries for the women’s teams are Japan, the United States, China, Mongolia, and Ukraine.
Qualifying countries are determined based on the overall team results from the Senior World Championships event held in September in Belgrade, Serbia. Top athletes on an All-World Team will represent countries that did not qualify. This team will represent another eight to nine nations, including three men’s wrestlers from Kyrgyzstan.