Wrestling Out of the Olympics in 2020

[Chris]

LAUSANNE, Switzerland - IOC leaders have dropped wrestling for the 2020 Games in a surprise decision to scrap one of the oldest sports on the Olympic program.

The IOC executive board decided Tuesday to retain modern pentathlon — the event considered most at risk — and remove wrestling instead from its list of core sports.

The decision, announced by the IOC, was first reported by The Associated Press.

The IOC board acted after reviewing the 26 sports on the current Olympic program. Eliminating one sport allows the International Olympic Committee to add a new sport to the program later this year.

Wrestling, which combines freestyle and Greco-Roman events, goes back to the inaugural modern Olympics in Athens in 1896.

Wrestling featured 344 athletes competing in 11 medal events in freestyle and seven in Greco-Roman at last year's London Olympics.

Wrestling will now join seven other sports in applying for inclusion in 2020. The others are a combined bid from baseball and softball, karate, squash, roller sports, sport climbing, wakeboarding and wushu. They will be vying for a single opening in 2020.

The IOC executive board will meet in May in St. Petersburg, Russia, to decide which sport or sports to propose for 2020 inclusion. The final vote will be made at the IOC general assembly in September in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The last sports removed from the Olympics were baseball and softball, voted out by the IOC in 2005 and off the program since the 2008 Beijing Games. Golf and rugby will be joining the program at the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro.

The IOC program commission report analyzed more than three dozen criteria, including television ratings, ticket sales, anti-doping policy and global participation and popularity. With no official rankings or recommendations contained in the report, the final decision by the 15-member board was also subject to political, emotional and sentimental factors.

Previously considered under the closest scrutiny was modern pentathlon, which has been on the Olympic program since the 1912 Stockholm Games. It was created by French baron Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympic movement.

Modern pentathlon combines fencing, horse riding, swimming, running and shooting — the five skills required of a 19th century cavalry officer. The sport's governing body, the UIPM, has been lobbying hard to protect its Olympic status, and the efforts apparently paid off.

UIPM President Klaus Schormann had considered travelling from Germany to Lausanne for the decision, but decided to stay away.

"The Olympic movement always needs history," Schormann told the AP ahead of the IOC decision. "You cannot just say we look only at the future. You can have a future when you are stable on the basic part of history. We are continuing to develop, to renovate, to be innovative and creative. We are very proud of what we achieved so far and want to deliver this as well for the next generations in 2020."

Canada has collected a half dozen wrestling medals in recent Games, including gold medals in freestyle wrestling won by Daniel Igali at the Sydney Games in 2000 and by Carol Huynh in Beijing in 2008.

Huynh, of New Hazelton, B.C., also won a bronze medal at the 2012 Games in London while Tonya Verbeek of Thorold, Ont., collected a silver in London. Verbeek earlier won a bronze medal in Beijing in 2008 and a silver at the 2004 Games in Athens.

This is so ridiculous. The only thing worse than taking out wrestling would have been sprinting.

 

[Keith]

Maybe they just see it as a very out dated Sport which would struggle to catch on with a younger audience. I agree with you through it is tradtional and just feels like something which should always be there.

 

[Chris]

Of all the sports to take out of the Olympics though, they pick the oldest and one of the most decorated.

 

[Deezy]

That's some bullshit right there.

Wrestling is the only event I give a shit about.

Take out lawn bowling or those lame ass gymnastics, where the girls are too young to ogle.

 

[Gimmick]

That's a real shame.

I wonder what this means for amateur wrestling in general. If their's no major goal for amateur wrestlers to aim for anymore then I expect the sport will get considerably less popular as the years go on. I know there's always State championships and what not, but after that there's nothing.

 

[Deezy]

That's a real shame.

I wonder what this means for amateur wrestling in general. If their's no major goal for amateur wrestlers to aim for anymore then I expect the sport will get considerably less popular as the years go on. I know there's always State championships and what not, but after that there's nothing.

It is still the best form of martial arts, I don't think it will be obscured in any way. There are still tons of martila arts tournaments going on, although I must admit, it isn't as popular as it was in the 80s, but they are still around.

Plus, MMA is still popular, and high school wrestling is till very rewarding. Atleast is was in my highschool.

 

[Slim]

This is beyond stupid. To "modernize?" In order to keep modernization happening you need to keep with tradition and build with it. Not remove it. I mean you have that idiotic sport with the ribbon... Ribbon Dancers or somethin... you got synchronized swimming/diving... really? You eliminate wrestling but keep ribbons and ... The IOC has just proven themselves to be idiots. I mean yeah I wasn't the biggest supporter of the wrestling or anything like that... but I'm always a fan of tradition which means... yeah I'd support wrestling. I've watched some of it. I'm a sprinter so I enjoy racing more... but wrestling being removed from the Olympics is just dumb.

 

[We Are Legion]

SERIOUSLY? That is unbelievable. They have curling, by-far the queerest, most boring, and useless event known to mankind, but wrestling is getting chopped?

Wow.

 

[The Cork]

Unless they are introducing a hybrid like MMA, I don't get it.

Wrestling is more popular than taekwondo/judo, surely.....no college programs for those in America.

 

[We Are Legion]

I bet anything baseball or softball is what they will try to replace it with.

 

[Slim]

I thought they already had softball. When they did the Olympics up in Atlanta... they did softball down here.

 

[Chris]

They're saying now softball and squash are the leading candidates to replace wrestling.

 

[Tapout]

This is just so unbelievably stupid. The sport with the most history in the Olympics is being cut, yet they keep the stupidest "sports."

If ancient Greeks could see what the Olympics are today, they would probably want to rage war on the world.

 

[We Are Legion]

If anything they should get rid of basketball since it's practically just a free gold medal for the US. Absolutely no parity whatsoever.

 

[The New F'n Show]

I thought they already had softball. When they did the Olympics up in Atlanta... they did softball down here.

The cut Softball and Baseball after 2008.