UWW discusses women's Greco-Roman wrestling for Olympics

LAS VEGAS (AP) The president of the international wrestling federation says there's a possibility that women's Greco-Roman could be added as an Olympic sport.

United World Wrestling head Nenad Lalovic said Thursday at the world championships that increasing gender equity is a must for the sport. But Lalovic added that any move toward women's Greco-Roman likely wouldn't happen until after the 2020 Tokyo Games at the earliest.

Lalovic says other solutions to increased participation for women have also been discussed, including beach wrestling.

''In order to have better gender balance, we are reviewing all solutions for the future,'' Lalovic said.

The IOC currently allows just 18 weight classes across both genders for wrestling. It was pressure from the IOC that forced the newly branded United World Wrestling to add two Olympic weights for women, which it had to poach from the men's side.

There will be six classes each in men's and women's freestyle and Greco-Roman next summer at the Rio Games.

There were 14 men's classes and four for women in London in 2012.

But there would certainly be concerns from the male wrestling community about adding a female discipline, given that it doesn't appear that the IOC would reward such a move with more Olympic slots for the sport.

Lalovic has worked closely with the IOC to modernize wrestling since it was temporarily kicked off the Olympic program in 2013. Lalovic was rewarded by recently becoming the first wrestling official to be named an IOC member.

Lalovic also said Thursday that the singlets wrestlers currently wear and the sport's convoluted team scoring for major events were ''old fashioned'' and in need of review.

Wrestlers could see uniform changes as soon as the Rio Games.