Olympic gold medallist Carol Huynh says the Games will not be the same without wrestling.

The Calgary wrestler says she was sad and angry to hear the news that the International Olympic Committee plans to drop wrestling from the 2020 Games.

Huynh won a gold medal at the 2008 Games in Beijing and a bronze last year in London.

She says Canada has had a wrestler at every games since the 1980s and stands to lose a lot because of the decision.

"There's so much history," Huynh said. "It's hard to think of an Olympic Games without wrestling."

Wrestling will be part of the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, but Huynh said, beyond that date, the number of wrestlers who will compete just for the love of the sport or for world championhips is finite.

A shock to young athletes, says coach

Andy Hutchinson, head coach of wrestling at Sir Winston Churchill High School, says the announcement was a total shock.

"It came out of nowhere," he said. "Kids who grow up in the sport who continue to pursue it at the university level, and then beyond, they really have one goal and that is to be an Olympian and represent their country at an Olympic games."

Hutchinson says it sends the wrong message to young athletes.

"It sends a message to young kids ... [that] maybe this isn't that important of a sport," he said.

The recommendation isn't formally binding yet. The IOC executive board will vote on the matter in September.