Georges St. Pierre to Wrestle in the 2012 Olympics

Georges St. Pierre has long been considered to be the best wrestler in all of mixed martial arts and the UFC.

St. Pierre was originally a striker and a jiu-jitsu guy by trade but he gradually added wrestling to his arsenal to the point where he can dominate fights with it (just ask Thiago Alves and BJ Penn).

What’s even more exceptional about GSP’s wrestling background is that he never wrestled in college like the other big-time wrestlers in the UFC did, he is mainly self-taught in the sport and he got so good that he reportedly has tossed around members of the Canadian Olympic Team in practice at times.

Now, GSP has designs on doing what some of his old training partners have done as he has expressed interest in competing in the 2012 Olympics for Canada.

For GSP, who already has it all as a superstar in one of the world’s fastest growing sports, the chance to wrestle in the Olympics is simply a chance to continue to fuel his competitive fire by finding a new challenge to work towards. It also is a great opportunity to bring more publicity to the sport of wrestling and to his beloved home country’s wrestling team.

If GSP can indeed make it to the 2012 Olympics as a wrestler and manage to get a medal or at least compete well, he could raise the profile of the sport in Canada and bring even more attention to the UFC in the process.

Of course, UFC President Dana White hasn’t always been on board with his fighters pursuing other passions outside of the sport of competitive MMA fighting.

But White has said that he’s okay with what GSP plans to do because unllke the Quinton “Rampage” Jackson situation where Jackson bailed on a big-time matchup with Rashad Evans, GSP has already announced his intentions ahead of time so that there will be no conflict of interest when the time comes to compete for the Olympics and no fights in the UFC will be compromised or interrupted.

So, can GSP do it? Most people believe he can, but he has a lot of learning to do to go from the UFC to competitive wrestling. His takedowns are about as explosive and technically sound as there’s ever been, but the difference between trying to go for a pin and trying to submit someone is pretty big.

But if anyone can do it, it’s definitely GSP, perhaps the best pure athlete Canada has produced in a long, long time.