CORSIER-SUR-VEVEY (February 28) – United World Wrestling has announced the addition of the U-23 World Championships to its official 2017 competition calendar. The event is scheduled to take place November 21-26 in Bydgoszcz, Poland.

The U-23 World Championships follow on the success of the U-23 European Championships in 2016 where more than 400 wrestlers from 34 nations competed for the continental gold. The turnout was attributed to a desire by many national federations to give their top prospects a chance to compete in a meaningful federation-based championship. Wrestling success tends to favor the young, with the average age of 2016 Olympic champion clocking in at just 23.1 years old for freestyle wrestling, 24.6 years in women’s wrestling and 27.5 years old in Greco-Roman.

“We want to meet the needs of our athletes and our National Federations have asked us for this U-23 competition to aid in the development of their young wrestlers,” said United World Wrestling president Nenad Lalovic. “We are thankful to the Polish Wrestling Federation for their leadership and look forward to an excellent World Championships in November.”

United World Wrestling’s Continental Championship series returns March 10th with the Oceania Championships in Pirae, French Polynesia, followed on March 16th and 17th by the Greco-Roman World Cup in Abadan City, Iran.

The Asian, European and Pan-American Continental Championships will be competed in May and will anchor “World Wrestling Month,” which aims to help promote the sport of wrestling around the world.