Photo: Tony Rotundo
The road to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics is coming through Iowa.
United World Wrestling announced Tuesday that Coralville, Iowa will host a 2027 Ranking Series event from May 31 to June 6, 2027. It's one of three Ranking Series stops next year, and UWW says it will be the first time Coralville has hosted one.
It's familiar ground for international wrestling, though. Coralville's Xtream Arena hosted the 2026 Pan American Championships this past May.
The 2027 Ranking Series
- Zagreb, Croatia: Feb. 1-7, 2027
- Coralville, Iowa: May 31 to June 6, 2027
- Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia: July 19-25, 2027
Zagreb has been a Ranking Series stop every year since 2023, and Ulaanbaatar hosted in 2025 and 2026. UWW will announce one more Ranking Series host for 2028 at a later date.
Why It Matters for LA 2028
The Ranking Series now matters more for Olympic qualification. Under UWW's qualification framework, three wrestlers per Olympic weight will qualify for LA 2028 through the UWW Rankings.
A wrestler's best five results will count toward those rankings, ranked by points earned rather than by place. The events that count are:
- The three 2027 Ranking Series events
- The 2027 Continental Championships
- The 2027 World Championships
- One 2028 Ranking Series event
- The 2028 Continental Championships
That gives American wrestlers a chance to bank Olympic ranking points without leaving the country, and in front of what should be a big Iowa crowd.
New Points System Starts Jan. 1
UWW also overhauled its Ranking Series points system, effective Jan. 1, 2027. The goal, according to UWW, is to reward match wins more directly and make the Ranking Series a bigger part of the Olympic race.
The biggest change is how much a Ranking Series event is now worth. A Ranking Series title is worth 20,000 points, twice as much as a Continental title. World and Olympic titles are still worth the most, at 40,000.
| Event | 1st Place | Per Bout Won | No Wins |
|---|---|---|---|
| World Championships / Olympic Games | 40,000 | 2,000 | 250 |
| Ranking Series | 20,000 | 1,000 | 150 |
| Continental Championships / Games | 10,000 | 500 | 75 |
Other changes:
- Wrestlers earn points for every bout they win, on top of their placement points.
- Wrestlers who compete but don't win a bout get a smaller participation allocation.
- Placement points are cut in half in weight classes with fewer than eight wrestlers.
- From 11th place on at the Worlds, Olympics and Ranking Series (and from 7th place on at Continental events), wrestlers must win at least one bout to earn placement points.
- Wrestlers who are disqualified or forfeit without being ranked get no points. If only one wrestler is entered at a weight, he or she gets participation points only.
The fight for LA 2028 spots starts in Zagreb in February, and it comes to Iowa in the spring.