Jayden Lawrence over the moon at IOC decision to bring wrestling back to the Olympics in 2020 and 2024

JAYDEN Lawrence is relieved wrestling was reinstated as a sport in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

Lawrence wrestles with a decision

THE International Olympic Committee's decision to include wrestling in the 2020 and 2024 Olympic Games has give Catherine Field athlete Jayden Lawrence a new sense of determination.

The IOC on Sunday decided to reinstate the sport as old as the games themselves, ruling out bids from baseball/softball and squash.

Wrestling received 49 votes in the first round of the IOC's secret ballot, while baseball-softball got 24 votes and squash 22.

Tokyo was last Saturday announced as the venue for the 2020 games, winning the vote 60-36 against Istanbul.

The decision brought relief to the wrestling world, which was cut from the list of core sports earlier this year, after a seven-month International Federation of Associated Wrestling Styles campaign.

Lawrence could be heard partying from Bulgaria, on the phone that is.

"Jayden called me as soon as the decision was announced and he was so happy," she said.

"He's in an international training camp in Bulgaria and all the wrestlers were screaming with joy."

The 19-year-old will be competing in Europe until December.

Mrs Lawrence said her son had been given a new goal: to make the Australian Olympic team.

"He missed out on London 2012 by one medal, he will work his backside off to make Rio de Janeiro 2016, but 2020 will be the prime of his career and he wants to be on that team," she said.