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Wrestling Removed from the Olympics! Something is VERY wrong in the world...


OldGoatGrappler

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Apparently Wrestling will have a chance to make its case for inclusion at the September meeting of the full IOC membership. However, that puts wrestling up againsat Karate, Baseball/Softball, Squash, etc... as sports wanting to get back in.

 

The IMPORTANT thing to remember is that Rythmic Gymnastics, Men's Field Hockey, Dressage, Sailing--one person Dinghy heavyweight (I'm not kidding, you can't make that up) and Synchronized Swimming (I'm not a strong swimmer!) all survived. I guess we can now add historical blindness to the IOC's character trait list. It should fit in nicely with the rest of the set: corruption, arrogance, elitism, backwardness and irretrievable stupidity.

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I'm sure Folkstylers will rejoice!!

No way trips. We are folkstylers at my house but when freestyle is on the olympics, we are glued to the t.v. My oldest called when burroughs gold medal match was first aired and i was able to drive home from the office and watch it with my boys. Great stuff. If its really gone i believe it will be a great blow to college and then trickle to h.s. I am fearful i might not get to see my grandchildren, which ill hopefully have someday, wrestle.

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I feel like I lost an old friend. I am also reminded how lucky I am to have been one of a very select few to have refereed an Olympic Games. Zach Errett and I are two of only 12 living referees to have represented the USA at the Games.

 

My thoughts also go out to the young athletes not only in Indiana, but all over the world, who dreamed of being an Olympic Champion.

 

It's a sad day indeed.

 

Tom Clark

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So let me get this right. Based on their decision which is supposed to include a report detailing 39 different criteria but was readily acknowledged to be more about personal and political opinion than fact, we can't watch wrestling in the Olympic Games but we get stuck with watching Dong Dong win Trampoline (seriously...look it up), women throwing Badminton matches, Dancing with a ribbon, BMX (I thought thats why the X-Games existed), Ping Pong (If you play it in college to see who can drink the most, how can it be an olympic sport), Horseback riding (why doesn't the horse get the medal) and like someone else mentioned....dinghy sailing....

 

Wow...Seriously.... Somewhere in whatever heaven or hell they ended up in, Ancient Greek athletes are simultaneously laughing hysterically and vomiting....

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This doesn't have to be a disaster for wrestling. First, focus on the September meeting of the full IOC. But realistically, with eight other sports, some deserving (Karate, Baseball/Softball) and some ridiculous (roller sports, sport climbing) all competing for for one spot, it may be too much to expect, especially since this would mean refuting the Exec. committee.

 

If FILA is unable to convince the IOC not to act stupidly--a difficult feat under the best of circumstances--then FILA, USA Wrestling and all other interested parties should focus on conducting the best, most highly publicized and most heavily attended world championships possible. Get corporate sponsors. Consider including all major styles (folk, greco, free, beach, heck, even invite the sumo guys. Imagine the fun of having Indy host all of those styles at the Convention Center and Banker's Life. Enlist Mitch Daniels, a former wrestler, to champion Indiana hosting the inaugural "Olympic Corruption Free World Wrestling Championships." The Olympics can go stew in their sleazy tactics and keep sliding towards becoming a glorified X Games. No more dropping weights classes to comply with the IOC's whims or putting up with corrupt officials that the IOC protected (FILA--clean up your act, too), no more being treated like an afterthought when our sport was one of the reasons for the ORIGINAL games and a charter sport at the reborn games in 1896. Long live wrestling!

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I know money and television ratings blah blah blah.

But it's astonishing that the Olympics, the world's true test of athleticism, can cut a sport where two men, when you boil it down to its base level, are battling to retain their ground (not go to your back or be taken down).  Blows my mind.

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this shouldn't be surprising to anyone......the olympics like everything else is all about making money......if it's not exciting enough to make people watch on tv or attend the actual event, it's going to get shelved.....and unfortunately watching two big wrestlers to a 1-0 match isn't a big draw.......and you get a lot of that type of action......if all wrestling was high scoring fast paced action and people understood the scoring it would have a much better chance....i personally think that if it was only folkstyle wrestling, it might have a better chance, at least from the USA crowd......i think folkstyle is much more exciting than freestyle and greco......but regardless this is a shame to see it go away, if it in fact does.......it's all about the money and not about what true sports are......syncronized swimming?.......whatever that gymnastics thing is where you run around with a ribbon?.......it goes on and on.......

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Wow...the IOC always talks about having sports in which the olympics are especially meaningful to that sport.  So golf and rugby are added and wrestling dropped? 

 

I mean it will be a nice novelty to golfers--but it is the only thing wrestlers think about for their entire lives.  Wow, are the priorities of the IOC so backward!

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This doesn't have to be a disaster for wrestling. First, focus on the September meeting of the full IOC. But realistically, with eight other sports, some deserving (Karate, Baseball/Softball) and some ridiculous (roller sports, sport climbing) all competing for for one spot, it may be too much to expect, especially since this would mean refuting the Exec. committee.

 

If FILA is unable to convince the IOC not to act stupidly--a difficult feat under the best of circumstances--then FILA, USA Wrestling and all other interested parties should focus on conducting the best, most highly publicized and most heavily attended world championships possible. Get corporate sponsors. Consider including all major styles (folk, greco, free, beach, heck, even invite the sumo guys. Imagine the fun of having Indy host all of those styles at the Convention Center and Banker's Life. Enlist Mitch Daniels, a former wrestler, to champion Indiana hosting the inaugural "Olympic Corruption Free World Wrestling Championships." The Olympics can go stew in their sleazy tactics and keep sliding towards becoming a glorified X Games. No more dropping weights classes to comply with the IOC's whims or putting up with corrupt officials that the IOC protected (FILA--clean up your act, too), no more being treated like an afterthought when our sport was one of the reasons for the ORIGINAL games and a charter sport at the reborn games in 1896. Long live wrestling!

 

This has to be a balanced response from the wrestling world. First you have JR/SR high wrestlers right now who may have their dreams shot to crap by the political and financial decisions of the few.

Second, this is a chance for FILA to clean up and get better organized. Focus on the World Championships. Possibly create a rival tournament for the Olympic wrestling tournament. Focus on what we can control as a community. Focus on making wrestling an irresistible option. Focus on making the Olympics want us back.

 

The possibilities are endless to focus now on a chance to significantly stabilize, grow and globalize wrestling without having to worry about the 2020 Games. This is the chance to reach out to past and future wrestlers for support, men and women who are the face of not only wrestling, but the face of other sports that are more recognizable worldwide and where wrestling provided a catalyst to where they are today. This is PR time.

 

A bit of history... During WW2, the Russian Army was in full retreat. Russian troops were driven by fear. They often faced 3 choices...Freeze to death, Fight and deal with German bullets or retreat and deal with bullets from their own officers.  It wasn't until Stalingrad and the published stories of heroism that the battle finally turned...

 

Maybe that's where we are now... Wrestling needs global heroes. Not Americans, Russians, Georgians or Bulgarians....Global.

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I'm sure Folkstylers will rejoice!!

 

I get your point.  But in reality it may give some NCAA schools even less of a reason to keep wrestling around since their are less options out there.  If this removal is held, MMA really needs to start making a case for wrestling or think may keep spiraling downward.

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