Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Olympic Wrestling: No More

This news is starting to make the rounds and to be totally honest I am pretty disgusted by it.




"By STEPHEN WILSON AP Sports Writer
LAUSANNE, Switzerland February 12, 2013 (AP)


IOC leaders dropped wrestling from the Olympic program on Tuesday, a surprise decision that removes one of the oldest Olympic sports from the 2020 Games.

The IOC executive board decided to retain modern pentathlon — the event considered most at risk — and remove wrestling instead from its list of 25 "core sports."

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."


This is legitimately a load of crap. And its fairly obvious where the reasoning lies...money. Although I am not sure how Modern Pentathlon made the cut. If there was a sport that screamed 'rich white folk' its the MP. Wrestling has always been a part of the games since ancient times yet it gets cut just like that. Rugby making it in I am happy about....Golf? Not so much. Not to mention some of the other goofy sports that quite frankly have no business being considered. Remember baseball and softball being in? That worked out real well. But now Wrestling has to contend with those two sports again in order to be considered for 2020. Doesnt matter since in the end they'll show hours of coverage for the 100m dash and diving yet maybe 5 minutes of field events in Track and Field.

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