Olympic committee votes to eliminate games’ oldest sport
Jacob Varner of the United States celebrated his gold medal victory in a 1-0, 1-0 match against Ukraine’s Valerii Andriitsev in the mens’ 96kg freestyle final at the ExCeL centre during the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London, England, Sunday, August 12, 2012.
When the modern Olympics began again in 1896, wrestling was one of the first sports to be accepted and has not left the Summer OIympic roster since.
However, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) dismissed those 2700 years of history on Feb. 12 when the announced that wrestling would no longer be included in the 2020 Olympics.
Due to budget constraints, the IOC had to cut their program from 26 core sports to 25. Modern Pentathlon, taekwondo and field hockey were also on the chopping block, but wrestling was the unlucky chosen one.
“This is a process of renewing and renovating the program for the Olympics,” said IOC spokesman Mark Adams. “In the view of the executive board, this was the best program for the Olympic Games in 2020. It’s not a case of what’s wrong with wrestling, it is what’s right with the 25 core sports.”
The IOC took into account the popularity, ticket sales, global reach, television ratings and anti-doping policies for each of the sports and decided wrestling was the weakest, surprising many who thought the modern pentathlon would be cut.
In fact, according to a poll by the L.A. Times, nearly 28 percent of people thought modern pentathlon should be cut while only 7.6 percent though wrestling should go.
In the 2012 London Olympic Games, wrestling had 344 competitors and gave out 33 medals.
The IOC’s removal of wrestling as a core sport does not mean it is banished from the Olympic games forever. On the contrary, wrestling could still show up at every Olympic games from here on out should the committee vote it in.
The classification of “core sport” means that the sport will be a guaranteed competition at the Olympics. Without that status, wrestling falls into a category that must bid to be selected by a certain city’s Olympic games.
The 2020 games committee must chose between wrestling, baseball and softball, karate, squash, roller sports, sport climbing, wakeboarding and wushu.
It is difficult to predict the committee’s choice, however, since the host city of the 2020 games has yet to be announced. It is unlikely that any of the three selected applicant host cities would vigorously support the reinstitution of wrestling.
The news may not seem terribly devastating to the US Olympic team as a whole. Only 125 of Team USA’s 2400 total summer games medals since 1896 have come from wrestling. However, 5 percent of total United States medals should not be ignored.
If Team USA had 5 percent fewer medals in the 2012 games, China would have surpassed the United States in the medal count.
Regardless of the news. USA Wrestling refuses to give up hope.
The tagline for U.S. wrestling is still “Where Olympic Journeys Begin.” If anything, the IOC announcement has strengthened the wrestling community worldwide.
Petitions are being signed, donations are being made and the IOC is being bombarded with letters.
Wrestling representatives from the United States, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Georgia, Iran, Japan, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkey will be brought together in Tehran, Iran on Thursday for the World Cup. In solidarity, they will lie on mats in protest of the IOC’s decision and urge them to reconsider.
