On June 19, New York City Sports Commissioner Kenneth J. Podziba will welcome the 2008 USA Olympic Wrestling Team to New York City. The team will be in New York Thursday, June 19, and Friday, June 20 to meet with fans and visit several attractions in advance of their departure to Beijing, China for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games.

"The USA Olympic Wrestling Team is one of the most decorated in our nation's Olympic history, and there is no better way to send them off to Beijing than with a tour of the Big Apple," said Commissioner Podziba. "They have a great trip planned that includes ringing the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange and putting on a demonstration for our city's best high school wrestlers at the newly-opened Sports Museum of America. On behalf of the City of New York, I wish these talented athletes the best of luck as they compete for gold in this summer's Olympic Games."

On Thursday, the wrestling team will sign autographs and pose for pictures with fans at 2:00pm at Foley's Pub and Restaurant, where they will also help launch the "Fuel the Dream" sandwich. Proceeds from the event will benefit Fuel the Dream, a foundation set up by USA Wrestling to help wrestlers bring their family members to Beijing and to allow them to focus their attention on training for the Olympics.

The team will visit the Charging Bull at Wall Street for a media photo opportunity at 11:30am on Friday before heading over to the Sports Museum of America at 2:30pm to meet members of the Chinese National Baseball Team. From there, four members of the team will go to the New York Stock Exchange to ring the closing bell, which will take place at 4:00pm.

The rest of the Olympic team will remain at the Sports Museum to meet with local high school wrestlers at 3:00pm for a demonstration and an opportunity for the kids to get pictures and autographs with their idols. The student-athletes were selected based on their success in the 2008 Mayor's Cup New York City Wrestling Championships, the city-wide tournament that crowned New York's top high school wrestlers earlier this year. The event will last two hours, allowing the four Olympians who ring the closing bell at the Stock Exchange to rejoin their team members and spend the rest of the afternoon with the Mayor's Cup winners.

For more information on the 2008 USA Olympic Wrestling Team, please visit www.themat.com.

The New York City Sports Commission is the mayoral agency charged with attracting, facilitating and promoting professional, amateur and scholastic sports events in New York City. The Sports Commission has played an integral role in creating or developing many new sporting events, including the NFL Kickoff Live from Times Square, NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series™ Champions Week, the BMC Software NYC Cycling Championship, the AVP Brooklyn Open, the NAUTICA NYC Triathlon, the NYC Half-Marathon, the Union Square Street Sessions presented by Jeep®, the Wild Onion Urban Adventure Race, and the Men's Health Urbanathlon.