The International Olympic Committee’s secret ballot removal of wrestling from the Games’ core events package sounds familiar. From NYT:
In recent years the I.O.C. has expressed concern about the size of the Summer Games and wanted to cap the number of athletes at about 10,500. It has also said it wants to enhance its modernity by drawing younger viewers among the international television audience. On Tuesday the Olympic committee said in a statement that it wanted to ensure that it remained “relevant to sports fans of all generations.”
Olympic-style wrestling, with its amateur roots and absence of visibility except during the Games, lacks superstars with widespread international acclaim like Lionel Messi in soccer, Kobe Bryant in basketball and Tiger Woods in golf. And the popularity of Olympic-style wrestling in the United States is far surpassed by the staged bombast of professional wrestling.
Sports like snowboarding have been added to the Winter Games to broaden the audience. Golf and rugby will be added to the 2016 Rio Games. Among the sports that wrestling must compete with for future inclusion are climbing, rollerblading and wakeboarding.
The committee might also have grown frustrated that Greco-Roman wrestling did not include women, experts said. Women began participating in freestyle wrestling at the 2004 Athens Games.
A quota mixed with a desire to include women’s events. We shouldn’t be surprised that the integrity or the tradition of the Games would last. Even founding sports like wrestling are on the chopping block when the money is to be made by attracting the young, female, and marginal sports fan.
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all is not lost chuck. Badminton and ping-pong made the cut
So, the fact that it’s one of the original Ancient Greek Olympic events didn’t matter? and wrestling is one of the purest sports in terms of measuring athletic talent, along with track and field. A weird decision all around.
Its about the Benjamins
You think MMA’s popularity would spread to wresting.
If young wrestlers can’t strive for Olympic gold, many more will head straight to MMA after college.
As a former wrestler who still trains, the reaction to this in the collegiate and Olympic wrestling world is huge. Wrestling is a western martial art, and it’s combat effectiveness is evidenced by the success of wrestlers in MMA. And contrary to what the NYT thinks, in Russia, Iran and many former Soviet republics, elite wrestlers are superstars. Many of these former republics, as well as India and Korea, get a majority of their Olympic medals through wrestling.
Some are suggesting the openly corrupt IOC is simply fishing for some ” donations “, and I’m sure some wealthy Russian oil baron with ties to wrestling will line the appropriate pockets.
Evil. Just evil.
Not enough black wrestlers? I really don’t know, just guessing.
Good comments Dave, MMA is bringing a resurgence to Wrestling. Wrestling should only grow in viewership and popularity since so many successful MMA athletes had Wrestled. Jiu Jitsu and Judo are forms of wrestling and I was thinking that JJ would soon be at least a spectator sport. The IOC are snakes and deserve the backlash they will get(I hope!).
Pie eating and spitting contests will be next no doubt.
The Olympics has lost all credibility and interest for me.
It is not necessary and the best in most sports do not need the OLympics to achieve greatness and show excellence.
FTWR…………
I’m a little surprised. There’s a lot of history with wrestling. Plus it doesn’t seem like it would cost a lot to stage. It seems like every city would have a venue capable of hosting wrestling. That said, it doesn’t seem popular with spectators.
To me the ones that should have been chopped are: equestrian and golf.
Its just not TV friendly. Not sure it ever was.
I can’t stand what the X-games of winter sports has done to the Winter Olympics and I stopped watching the Summer Olympics not long after I got sick of Carl Lewis’ preening and his gold shoes.
“If young wrestlers can’t strive for Olympic gold, many more will head straight to MMA after college.”
I would think more like after high school (if high school wrestling even survives long).
It isn’t like many are getting full rides to college.
I would like to see Hugh Jackman and Russell Crowe engage in a naked, Greco Roman wrestling match!
They cut the multihulls from the Olympics a while back. The common theory was that the IOC was really unhappy that the winning teams were usually in their 40s. Racing catamarans involves a lot of strategy and experience tends to overshadow youthful athletic ability.