Wrestling Removed As Core Olympic Sport - The Something Awful Forums

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Some Guy TT: Aug 30, 2011; uh...if anyone needs me I'll be peeing in the backyard

Don't know whether this is technically the right subforum for this, but the story has really taken me by surprise and I couldn't find a thread for it anywhere:

quote:

LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- For wrestling, this may have been the ultimate body slam: getting tossed out of the Olympic rings.

The vote Tuesday by the IOC's executive board stunned the world's wrestlers, who see their sport as popular in many countries and steeped in history as old as the Olympics themselves.

While wrestling will be included at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, it was cut from the games in 2020, which have yet to be awarded to a host city.

Past Olympic Greco-Roman champion Khasan Baroev of Russia called the decision "mind-boggling."

"I just can't believe it. And what sport will then be added to the Olympic program? What sport is worthy of replacing ours?" Baroev told the ITAR-Tass news agency. "Wrestling is popular in many countries -- just see how the medals were distributed at the last Olympics."

American Rulon Gardner, who upset three-time Russian Olympic champion Alexander Karelin at the Sydney Games in an epic gold-medal bout known as the "Miracle on the Mat," was saddened by the decision to drop what he called "a beloved sport."

"It's the IOC trying to change the Olympics to make it more mainstream and more viewer-friendly instead of sticking to what they founded the Olympics on," Gardner told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from Logan, Utah.

Even Atlanta Falcons wide receiver Roddy White, a two-time high school state wrestling champion, voiced his displeasure, tweeting: "IOC come on seriously wrestling is a sport that almost every country does and you drop it I'm pissed #saveolympicwrestling".

The executive board of the International Olympic Committee reviewed the 26 sports on its summer program in order to remove one of them so it could add one later this year. It decided to cut wrestling and keep modern pentathlon -- a sport that combines fencing, horse riding, swimming, running and shooting -- and was considered to be the most likely to be dropped.

The board voted after reviewing a report by the IOC program commission that analyzed 39 criteria, including TV 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.

"This is a process of renewing and renovating the program for the Olympics," IOC spokesman Mark Adams said. "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."

According to IOC documents obtained by the AP, wrestling ranked "low" in several of the technical criteria, including popularity with the public at the London Games -- just below 5 on a scale of 10. Wrestling sold 113,851 tickets in London out of 116,854 available.

Wrestling also ranked "low" in global TV audience with a maximum of 58.5 million viewers and an average of 23 million, the documents show. Internet hits and press coverage were also ranked as low.

The IOC also noted that FILA -- the international wrestling federation -- has no athletes on its decision-making bodies, no women's commission, no ethics rules for technical officials and no medical official on its executive board.

Modern pentathlon also ranked low in general popularity in London, with 5.2 out of 10. The sport also ranked low in all TV categories, with maximum viewership of 33.5 million and an average of 12.5 million.

FILA has 177 member nations, compared to 108 for modern pentathlon.

Modern pentathlon, which has been on the Olympic program since the 1912 Stockholm Games, was created by French baron Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympic movement.

It also benefited from the work of Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr., the son of the former IOC president who is a UIPM vice president and member of the IOC board.

"We were considered weak in some of the scores in the program commission report but strong in others," Samaranch told the AP. "We played our cards to the best of our ability and stressed the positives."

"We have promised things and we have delivered," he said after Tuesday's decision. "That gives me a great feeling. It also gives me new energy to develop our sport further and never give up."

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 session, or general assembly, in September in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Wrestling will now join seven other sports in applying for 2020, but it is extremely unlikely that it would be voted back in so soon after being removed by the executive board.

The other sports vying for a single opening in 2020 are a combined bid from baseball and softball, karate, squash, roller sports, sport climbing, wakeboarding and wushu, a martial art.

"Today's decision is not final," Adams said. "The session is sovereign and the session will make the final decision."

Wrestling featured 344 athletes competing in 11 medal events in freestyle and seven in Greco-Roman at last year's London Olympics, with Russia dominating the podium but Iran and Azerbaijan making strong showings. Women's wrestling was added to the Olympics at the 2004 Athens Games.

Tuesday's decision came via secret ballot over four rounds, with 14 members voting each time on which sport should not be included in the core group. IOC president Jacques Rogge did not vote.

Three sports were left in the final round: wrestling, field hockey and modern pentathlon. Eight members voted against wrestling and three each against the other two sports. Taekwondo and canoe kayaking survived the previous rounds.

"I was shocked," said IOC board member Rene Fasel of Switzerland.

"It was an extremely difficult decision to take," added IOC Vice President Thomas Bach of Germany. "The motivation of every member is never based on a single reason. There are always several reasons. It was a secret vote. There will always be criticism, but I think the great majority will understand that we took a decision based on facts and for the modernization of the Olympic Games."

Wrestling was featured in the first modern Olympics in Athens in 1896. Along with Russia's Karelin, it has produced such American stars as Gardner, Bruce Baumgartner, Jeff Blatnick and Jordan Burroughs.

U.S. Olympic Committee CEO Scott Blackmun also expressed surprise at the IOC decision, citing "the history and tradition of wrestling, and its popularity and universality."

"It is important to remember that today's action is a recommendation, and we hope that there will be a meaningful opportunity to discuss the important role that wrestling plays in the sports landscape both in the United States and around the world," Blackmun said in a statement. "In the meantime, we will fully support USA Wrestling and its athletes."

FILA said in a statement that it was "greatly astonished" by the decision, adding that the federation "will take all necessary measures to convince the IOC executive board and IOC members of the aberration of such decision against one of the founding sports of the ancient and modern Olympic Games."

It said it has always complied with IOC regulations and is represented in 180 countries, with wrestling the national sport in some of them.

The federation, headed by Raphael Martinetti and based in Corsier-sur-Vevey, Switzerland, said it would meet next week in Thailand to discuss the matter.

Gardner cited wrestling's worldwide popularity and urged a campaign to keep it in the Olympics.

"It just seems like wrestling -- if we don't fight, we're going to die," he said. "At this point, it's time for everybody to man up and support the program."

The decision hit hard in Russia, long a power in the sport, in which Soviet and Russian wrestlers have won 77 gold medals.

The Russian Olympic Committee says it plans to appeal to the IOC to restore wrestling to the games.

Russian Olympic Committee president Alexander Zhukov says "we will use all of our strength to persuade the IOC not to exclude wrestling from the Olympic program."

Mikhail Mamiashvili, president of the Russian Wrestling Federation, suggested FILA had not done enough to keep the sport in the games.

"We want to hear what was done to prevent this issue from even being discussed at the board," he said on the Rossiya TV channel.

In comments carried by ITAR-Tass, Mamiashvili added: "I can say for sure that the roots of this problem is at the FILA. I believe that Martinetti's task was to work hard, socialize and defend wrestling's place before the IOC."

Alexander Leipold, a 2000 Olympic champion from Germany and former freestyle German team coach, said he was shocked.

"We are a technical, tactical martial sport where the aim is not to harm the opponent," he said. "Competing at the Olympics is the greatest for an athlete."

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.

Among those in Lausanne were the leaders of the recently created World Baseball Softball Confederation. The two sports agreed last year to merge in a joint bid to return to the games.

Don Porter, the American who heads international softball, and Riccardo Fraccari, the Italian who leads baseball, are working out the final details of their unified body ahead of their presentation to the IOC in May.

A major hurdle remains the lack of a commitment from Major League Baseball to release top players for the Olympics.

Porter and Fraccari said they hope to have another meeting with MLB officials in April in Tokyo.

"The next thing is to sit down with them and see how they can help us," Porter said. "It all depends on the timing, the timing of the season. It's not an easy decision to allow players a week off."

The short of this is that Greco-Roman Wrestling is no longer a core Olympic sport. That a whole room of people working for the Olympics were able to come to such a decision without once realizing how ridiculous this sounds continues to puzzle me. Of all the sports currently played at the Olympics Wrestling is one of the few that was played at the original ones millenia ago. It has a broad international following from a wide group of diverse countries, many of which consider it the national sport. The Olympic Gold Medal is considered the highest possible accomplishment among practitioners of the sport. I can believe that it's not a ratings behemoth, but it seems like if there was any sport that should be given a pass for historical reasons, it would be Greco-Roman Wrestling.

There's been a lot of complaints about this decision internationally, to the point I'm not at all sure how this decision was reached in the first place. It takes a pretty incredible effort for anyone to do something that pisses off both the American and Iranian governments enough for them to start building united delegations. My best guess as to what's going on here is that it's a combination of voting members looking at the Olympic Games in the most literally profitable terms as well as a general European bias. I'm at a loss as to what other explanation there could be and am hoping to be enlightened some by discussion here. Let's take a look at this list:

quote:

The other sports vying for a single opening in 2020 are a combined bid from baseball and softball, karate, squash, roller sports, sport climbing, wakeboarding and wushu, a martial art.

These are the sports Wrestling has to compete with for inclusion in a single spot. For a sense of comparison, core Olympic Sports that are apparently sacrosanct include Penthathlon, Equestrian Sports, Rowing, Kayaking, and Sailing. Also all of these sports are apparently considered equal to the Olympic committee, whether they have two events or twenty. So, what am I missing here? How is the International Olympic Committee arriving at these decisions, and why?

# ? Feb 20, 2013 19:59

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# ? May 22, 2013 01:58

Anime Reference: Dec 10, 2007; Yeah, it's an anime reference.

Some Guy TT posted:

How is the International Olympic Committee arriving at these decisions, and why?

quote:

It also benefited from the work of Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr., the son of the former IOC president who is a UIPM vice president and member of the IOC board.

Welp, there you go.

# ? Feb 20, 2013 20:23

Meltathon: Nov 17, 2005; Let's Dance!

First, this is freestyle wrestling too, not just Greco-Roman wrestling.

Politics, it's almost all internal politics. The wrestling organization FILA, typically does not lobby or get involved with the IOC. Whereas modern pentathlon has a VP of its board on the IOC board too, so he was probably able to lobby enough other board members to keep the modern pentathlon on.

It's pretty laughable that wrestling received a low rating for popularity at the games when it sold like 97% of it's available tickets, and received a higher total viewership than the modern pentathlon on TV. I have a hard time imagining that if you took a world wide poll that either the modern pentathlon or field hockey would beat wrestling in popularity, but I doubt that's ever been done.

It's a real shame because wrestling is a core sport for almost every high school athletic program, and most colleges have a wrestling program too. It's a low cost sport, making it easy for schools to participate in, unlike the modern pentathlon, water sports like kayaking, or the equestrian sports. It's also a very pure sport, there aren't an overabundance of rules, it isn't a judged sport like gymnastics or diving, and of course it dates back to the original Olympic games. Here's hoping FILA can get on this poo poo and get it back in for 2020, the anger over this has been pretty high so far.

# ? Feb 20, 2013 20:28

skaboomizzy: Nov 12, 2003; I got somewhere I gotta be so... call it. Come on. Call it. Come on. Call it. Call it. Come on. Seriously. Call it.

I'd rather see boxing removed after the debacle of the most recent Games.

# ? Feb 20, 2013 21:28

R.D. Mangles: Jan 10, 2004

First they came for baseball and I said nothing.

# ? Feb 20, 2013 21:30

particle409: Jan 15, 2008

How the gently caress can they have horse dancing, but not wrestling? It's dumb that "equestrian sports" can have multiple sub sports. Cut any equestrian sport that doesn't bring in tons of money, and turn them into lasagna tv dinners.

# ? Feb 21, 2013 05:00

shyduck: Oct 3, 2003

By 2100 they'll have video games as a medal sport

# ? Feb 21, 2013 05:02

Contra Duck: Nov 4, 2004; #1 DAD

Meltathon posted:

I have a hard time imagining that if you took a world wide poll that either the modern pentathlon or field hockey would beat wrestling in popularity, but I doubt that's ever been done.

Field hockey would win your survey comfortably when a few hundred million Indians and Pakistanis vote for it.

# ? Feb 21, 2013 06:12

Look Around You: Jan 19, 2009; I hear Ottawa sucks this time of year anyway...

I guess I'm just confused as to how Wrestling gets cut but loving table tennis is considered a viable olympic sport.

# ? Feb 21, 2013 07:50

Piggles: Oct 10, 2006; Wilson with the Hail Mary to Tate!

Look Around You posted:

I guess I'm just confused as to how Wrestling gets cut but loving table tennis is considered a viable olympic sport.

From a marketing stand point; table tennis is way more intriguing to watch than wrestling.

But seriously if this decision was made on a purely financial basis than gently caress the organization.

# ? Feb 21, 2013 08:11

SubCrid TC: Feb 10, 2004; Believe.

I think squash would do fine:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5WbnadzK9M

# ? Feb 21, 2013 08:41

shyduck: Oct 3, 2003

Piggles posted:

But seriously if this decision was made on a purely financial basis than gently caress the organization.

It's the IOC, everything they do is money-driven

# ? Feb 21, 2013 09:21

soggybagel: Aug 6, 2006; Road conditions? Icey.
Seat belts? For pussies.
Ferrari? 360 Modena.
Speed? Not fast enou-
TREE! OH GOD OH GOD NO
I'M SO SORRY DEVIN

On the other hand, no one cares to watch wrestling ever.

# ? Feb 21, 2013 10:45

Redeye Flight: Mar 26, 2010; Three airlines, five connections, and every single coffee shop is closed.

I come from a college where the main event on campus is always the wrestling team. National quality, championships up and down the board. I can't say it's ever struck me as a personal favorite, but then I haven't been much into sports for a very long time. It'd certainly never have occurred to me that a modern sporting event designed around the Grecian classics would drop the event that is probably the first sport people would associate with Greece.

I'm on the "bring it back" side. There are far less storied sports in the Olympics to cut.

# ? Feb 21, 2013 10:50

SBJ: Apr 10, 2009

particle409 posted:

How the gently caress can they have horse dancing, but not wrestling? It's dumb that "equestrian sports" can have multiple sub sports. Cut any equestrian sport that doesn't bring in tons of money, and turn them into lasagna tv dinners.

I bet that the Royal Family pays them off to keep horse dancing so that they can enter their inbred children riding the best horses in the world, win a medal or two and brag about the royal blood being Olympians.

There are a ton of poo poo sports that should get axed before Wrestling.

# ? Feb 21, 2013 12:32

Meltathon: Nov 17, 2005; Let's Dance!

Contra Duck posted:

Field hockey would win your survey comfortably when a few hundred million Indians and Pakistanis vote for it.

I didn't realize that field hockey was big in those two countries, I always figured it was a strictly European thing. Imperialism is to blame I guess.

# ? Feb 21, 2013 16:41

Scirocco Griffon: Feb 3, 2012

Maybe now they can finally add poker like that one publicity stunt was trying to get them to do a few years back. Hell, it's about as physically demanding as sitting on a prancing horse so why not?

# ? Feb 21, 2013 19:14

leokitty: Apr 5, 2005; Well I had to phone his friend to state my case, and say he's lost control again.

And he showed up all the errors and mistakes, and said I've lost control again.

Horse dancing wasn't up to get kicked out, modern pentathlon which is even more snooty was though. It also has way, way fewer participants than equestrian events or wrestling but IOC corruption woo. FILA really hosed up but that's why the head was immediately pushed out.

# ? Feb 21, 2013 19:24

Crazy Ted: Jul 29, 2003

Scirocco Griffon posted:

Hell, it's about as physically demanding as sitting on a prancing horse so why not?

That is so pass�. Camel Dressage is where it's at now:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEtN_3zd5s4

# ? Feb 21, 2013 20:56

R.D. Mangles: Jan 10, 2004

What if we compromised and added horse wrestling?

# ? Feb 21, 2013 20:57

Elephanthead: Sep 11, 2008

I would take jousting or women's beach wrestling, or beach jousting.

# ? Feb 21, 2013 22:02

ch3cooh: Jun 26, 2006; Because second place just isn't good enough

R.D. Mangles posted:

What if we compromised and added horse wrestling?

Karelin would still dominate

# ? Feb 21, 2013 22:37

oldman: Dec 15, 2003; grumpy

I was surprised if only for the cost aspect. Wrestling must be a low cost event to put on; You don't need a specialized facility to be built.

# ? Feb 22, 2013 02:40

skaboomizzy: Nov 12, 2003; I got somewhere I gotta be so... call it. Come on. Call it. Come on. Call it. Call it. Come on. Seriously. Call it.

Honestly, the IOC should be ashamed of what went on with the boxing competition of the last Games and I'd much rather see boxing get the axe instead of wrestling. I also suspect that's exactly WHY wrestling is getting cut instead of boxing: not enough bribe money circulating around national federations.

# ? Feb 22, 2013 07:59

Some Guy TT: Aug 30, 2011; uh...if anyone needs me I'll be peeing in the backyard

What happened with boxing? The article doesn't say how long it lasted, but it wasn't one of the five final sports up to be cut. Wrestling, Pentathlon, Field Hockey, Kayaking, and Tae-Kwon-Do, if you skimmed over that part of the article.

# ? Feb 22, 2013 15:50

leokitty: Apr 5, 2005; Well I had to phone his friend to state my case, and say he's lost control again.

And he showed up all the errors and mistakes, and said I've lost control again.

Some Guy TT posted:

What happened with boxing? The article doesn't say how long it lasted, but it wasn't one of the five final sports up to be cut. Wrestling, Pentathlon, Field Hockey, Kayaking, and Tae-Kwon-Do, if you skimmed over that part of the article.

Every cycle boxing has massive bribery and judging scandals and 2012 was no different.

# ? Feb 22, 2013 16:23

ch3cooh: Jun 26, 2006; Because second place just isn't good enough

Some Guy TT posted:

What happened with boxing? The article doesn't say how long it lasted, but it wasn't one of the five final sports up to be cut. Wrestling, Pentathlon, Field Hockey, Kayaking, and Tae-Kwon-Do, if you skimmed over that part of the article.

http://deadspin.com/5931226/was-thi...ing-match-fixed

# ? Feb 22, 2013 17:49

Kale: May 14, 2010; Save a goal, ride a horse, but no fun ever....as long as Michel is looking that is

So they basically cut THE sport that is most closely associated with the classic Olympic tradition. That's....somehow not surprising at all really.

# ? Feb 22, 2013 17:53

Peanut President: Nov 5, 2008

Everyone keeps talking about "get rid of horses" or "get rid of pentathlon" my question is, why the gently caress are the olympics limited to 26 sports? Like when they kicked out Baseball it made sense, only like 12 countries on earth play Baseball at a high level. Kicking out a sport because of some arbitrary number is garbage. It isn't like the IOC pays for anything.

# ? Feb 22, 2013 18:08

Mr. Cool Ice: Mar 4, 2007; I Terrorism

Peanut President posted:

Everyone keeps talking about "get rid of horses" or "get rid of pentathlon" my question is, why the gently caress are the olympics limited to 26 sports?

I have a related question. Apparently, swimming, diving, sychronized swimming, and *water polo* all together only count as 1 "sport". Yet boxing, wrestling, taekwondo and judo are considered 4 separate sports. What the hell?

# ? Feb 22, 2013 19:12

Some Guy TT: Aug 30, 2011; uh...if anyone needs me I'll be peeing in the backyard

Let's also not forget that Swimming has something like 15 different events that amount to "swim between 50 and 400 meters in a slightly different way". Michael Phelps is a great athlete and all, but it's just about physically impossible for any other athlete to match his medal account unless they're winning well into their seventies.

I understood why swimming was divided like this a lot better when I found out that the fastest method of swimming, the front crawl, was originally created by Indians. I'm reasonably sure at this point that the IOC's decisions are based primarily on what gives rich white people the most self-esteem.

# ? Feb 22, 2013 20:26

Meltathon: Nov 17, 2005; Let's Dance!

Chilly McFreeze posted:

I have a related question. Apparently, swimming, diving, sychronized swimming, and *water polo* all together only count as 1 "sport". Yet boxing, wrestling, taekwondo and judo are considered 4 separate sports. What the hell?

The only way I can slightly defend the Olympics here is that there are several weight classes in wrestling, 7 for men's freestyle, another 7 for Greco-Roman, and I think 5 for women's freestyle, so you're giving out 19 gold medals in wrestling.

# ? Feb 22, 2013 21:10

ch3cooh: Jun 26, 2006; Because second place just isn't good enough

Meltathon posted:

The only way I can slightly defend the Olympics here is that there are several weight classes in wrestling, 7 for men's freestyle, another 7 for Greco-Roman, and I think 5 for women's freestyle, so you're giving out 19 gold medals in wrestling.

But unlike swimming it is not possible for a single athlete to compete in more than one weight class while in swimming a single athlete will compete it multiple disciplines and distances

# ? Feb 22, 2013 21:30

GnarGnarBinks: Jan 4, 2013

I'm sure it's more of a question for the MMA thread- but what's the timeframe of getting something UFC-based into the Olympics? I don't watch any boxing or wrestling... and have only seen a few main events on UFC. I'm far from a Tapout fanboy- but would love to see this sport make its way into the field. To me, it seems like boxing- except when they fall down they get to keep going!

Even though I've never watched an event, it's a shame to see wrestling out. But then again, I think tug-of-war should still be in. What better way is there to judge nations than 'my 10 guys can pull a rope harder than your country'? Set a weight limit for each team and let them battle!

# ? Feb 22, 2013 22:22

Pierce and Pierce: Jul 1, 2007; Murders and Executions

I don't see any way to stage a MMA tournament in that time frame without adding so many restrictions that it wouldn't really even be MMA anymore.

# ? Feb 22, 2013 22:31

Proposition Joe: Oct 8, 2010

GnarGnarBinks posted:

I'm sure it's more of a question for the MMA thread- but what's the timeframe of getting something UFC-based into the Olympics?

Never.

# ? Feb 22, 2013 22:40

Simplex: Jun 29, 2003

Peanut President posted:

Everyone keeps talking about "get rid of horses" or "get rid of pentathlon" my question is, why the gently caress are the olympics limited to 26 sports? Like when they kicked out Baseball it made sense, only like 12 countries on earth play Baseball at a high level. Kicking out a sport because of some arbitrary number is garbage. It isn't like the IOC pays for anything.

It's getting to be really crazy expensive to host the Olympics that a lot of countries are beginning to balk at handling the IOC bundles of cash for the privilege of hosting a games. They agreed to limit the field in order to help lower some of the costs.

# ? Feb 22, 2013 23:24

Peanut President: Nov 5, 2008

So they eliminated a sport that could be held in the basketball arena. Neat.

# ? Feb 23, 2013 00:12

Some Guy TT: Aug 30, 2011; uh...if anyone needs me I'll be peeing in the backyard

Funny you should mention that...

The Olympics could probably add all the proposed new sports and more if they didn't insist on building brand new world-class facilities for everything. I doubt very much that any of the cost problems they're having right now have anything directly to do with the sports. Most of it's probably in the bureaucracy.

# ? Feb 23, 2013 00:41

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# ? May 22, 2013 01:58

SBJ: Apr 10, 2009

I honestly just want to see a piss-poor response in the number of cities competing to host the Olympics next time, to the point where it's really evident that nobody likes the direction it's going. They really have become way too bloated in their own bullshit hype. I can't remember the last time I actually enjoyed watching the Olympics, even when it was being hosted in my city.

Right now I no longer think of it as "the greatest sporting event". I just see it as that annoying time of the 2-4 years in which there is nothing on TV other than 6 hours of swimming, 1 hour of rowing, another on weightlifting (which is pretty cool) and the rest of the day spent on bullshit horse sports.

They are surprised that the World Cup is leagues more popular than the Olympics?

# ? Feb 23, 2013 01:06

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