Wrestling Is No Longer an

Wrestling Is No Longer an Olympic Sport Wrestling is one of the oldest sports and, apparently, one of the most popular from public comments that followed news of its excision from the 2020 Olympics games. The decision for its expulsion is unclear. Advocates of the game plan to take action and to ensure that the International Olympic Committee reverses its decision so that spectators can enjoy the game as they used to. Wrestling appeared in the Olympic Games in 708 B.C.

And attracts spectators to the sport by means of its primal simplicity. Competitors do not employ technical aids in embattling the other. Rather, primitive means of upper arms, legs, and brain are used in tackling the opponent. The game, primitive as it seems, demands long hours of training, tenacity, and endurance and has been popularized in movies such as 'Rocky'.

Even the official Olympic website states that wrestling is not only the oldest sport of the games but that "with the possible exception of athletics, wrestling is recognized as the world's oldest competitive sport." (Lancaster Gazzette, 2013). Wrestling, therefore, rather than being the obsolete sport that the International Olympic Committee deemed it to be, is one that is more intelligent and attractive than it appears to be on the surface.

Why did the Olympics committee vote to expel it? It seems as though the Olympics is fed up with its classical appearance and wants to add more telegenic luster to its name. To that end, it aims to introduce modernity, youth, and relevance to its winter and summer games and whilst freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling will feature in the Rio de Janeiro Olympia in 2016, they will be absent from the Olympics in 20120.

Decision to repudiate wrestling was conducted by secret ballot by the Olympic committee's 15-member executive board at its headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland. Given reasons were only partial. These include desire to make the Games more attractive and telegenic and to make them worth their expense. The IOC wishes to attract younger members to the Games and it also aims to reduce the number of athletes to about 10,500. The Board also wished to make room for another sport.

To that end, it reviewed each of its current 26 events using 39 different criteria with conditions falling into one of eight categories. The categories include governance, universality, history and tradition, popularity, athletes, development of the sport, finance and general, with no one category receiving preference over another. The Board finally decided to remove wrestling. Alternative sports being considered for 2020 are the following: karate, roller sports, sport climbing, squash, wakeboarding, the combination of baseball and softball, and wushu (a form of exhibition martial arts).

The IOC will vote on the replacement in St. Petersburg, Russia, in May. Each and every one of these sports they see as having more of an appeal than the classical sport that started off with the Greeks. The final decision will be made at the IOC general assembly in September in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Politics may also have played a part in pushing out the sport.

Modern pentathlon, for instance is even less popular than wrestling, but it remains largely due to the fact that its sport was invented by Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Games and that it is supported by Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr., son of a former I.O.C. president and a member of its executive board. The IOC is correct: Olympic style wrestling does not have the same luster as the other events possess.

It lacks the celebrities and, in the U.S.A., is suppressed by the staged allure of professional wrestling. Other more contemporary sports such as rock climbing, rollerblading and wakeboarding have also climbed in to demote it. On the other hand, wrestling also has its advocates. And many of them are powerful indeed. Lovers of the game are not taking this news lying down. Wrestling's world governing body, abbreviated as FILA, has voted to fight the decision and others have jumped on board.

"When you think of the Olympics, you think of wrestling," said Cael Sanderson, the wrestling coach at Penn State and a 2004 Olympic freestyle champion. "It was a marquee event in ancient Greece and in the modern Games. After running, it was the next sport to be part of the Games. Like track and field, the Olympics are the highest level. Some sports, it's just not as special." (New York Times, 2013) Lancaster state.