Gucci Little Piggy

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How the pentathlon trumped wrestling

You may have read this bit on the International Olympic Committee’s choosing to keep the pentathlon over wrestling:

Schormann [president of the Union International de Pentathlon Moderne] credited the recent changes to the sport, especially the inclusion of women in 2000 and a broader swath of countries competing, with helping the I.O.C.’s decision to keep modern pentathlon.

“It is a movement of women,” Schormann said. “In our sport, everything the women do is equal to the men. And more people are training around the world in different societies and religious groups. It’s open to everyone.”

 

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13 Responses to How the pentathlon trumped wrestling

  1. asdf 02/14/2013 at 8:55 am

    My Dad went to college on a wrestling scholarship. Its an incredibly demanding and athletic sport with a long history dating to the original olympics. Its also really fun to watch.

    Due to the WWF there is no professional wrestling in America. As such the Olympics really becomes the goal for all these athletes. Tragic.

  2. peterike 02/14/2013 at 9:37 am

    “In our sport, everything the women do is equal to the men.”

    Yeah, let’s not separate the genders in the event and then see how the women do.

    “And more people are training around the world in different societies and religious groups. It’s open to everyone.”

    Diversity, diversity, diversity. Fetish, fetish, fetish.

  3. Scott 02/14/2013 at 10:03 am

    Their outdated mode of thinking must end. It’s not fair that the women don’t get to compete directly with the men. Just eliminate all the sex rules. May the best athlete win.

  4. anti-racist 02/14/2013 at 10:18 am

    If you notice, only white men seem to let women get away with this stuff. That tells you something right there.

  5. Dan 02/14/2013 at 10:46 am

    There was a guy on the committee, Juan Samaranch Jr or something, who is the head of some olympic pentathalon organization. So worldwide wrestling gets axed so it doesn’t get awkward when you they happen to go to the water cooler cooler at the same time as him.

  6. PA 02/14/2013 at 11:49 am

    A mindframe to keep is that all traditional and official institutions are corrupt and it’s best to abandon them, and to saw the seeds for creating our own. The Olympics are no different — when Norwegian female athletes flash gang signs with Usain Bolt and China Olympic park is an international joke of a jizzsplatter, it’s clear that the institution is poisoned.

    When gay scoutmasters are forced upon the Boy Scouts, parents should then pull their sons out of that organization and start a new grassroots organization.

    The initial spark behind Poland’s Solidarity movement was to create independent trade unions because the official government-endorsed ones were seen as corrupt.

  7. Tom 02/14/2013 at 11:56 am

    Just another nail in our societal coffin. Wrestling is still the best base for mma so there’s that at least.

  8. PA 02/14/2013 at 12:46 pm

    Re. Valentine’s Day waiter nightmares, this is one of my favorite scenes from Three’s Company: Jack is a proud young owner of a new bistro, and he tries to placate an irate couple, a domineering fat woman and a henpecked husband.

    The fat woman is not satisfied with Jack’s efforts to resolve her complaint. So she stands up to leave and and huffs: “I’m not hungry.”

    So Jack looks at her husband and says “I bet she doesn’t say that very often” and the husband giggles.

  9. Eric 02/14/2013 at 12:50 pm

    Specialized skills vs raw physicality + skills.

  10. youngreact 02/14/2013 at 12:54 pm

    When wrestling got axed, I had a strong feeling this was about some gender “equality” shite. This definitely implies that my initial reaction was correct.

  11. Phillyastro 02/14/2013 at 1:25 pm

    I don’t think this changes your suspicions about wrestling being dropped, but Women’s Olympic Wrestling has been a medal sport since 2004. Maybe the lack of female participants also helped the IOC to make their decision.

    http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/14/opinion/downey-olympic-wrestling/index.html

  12. Average Man 02/14/2013 at 7:32 pm

    I’ve only seen snippets of it on TV during the Olympics, but I like the idea behind the modern pentathlon:

    Coubertin created the contest to simulate the experience of a 19th century cavalry soldier behind enemy lines: he must ride an unfamiliar horse, fight with pistol and sword, swim, and run

    Not many sports have a narrative.

  13. Anthony 02/14/2013 at 8:36 pm

    They kept a shooting sport!

    Though they’ve screwed up the pentathlon – the pistol is now a laser pistol.

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