Wrestling Dropped From The 2020 Olympic Games *Update!*

Xenji

What are your thoughts on this, the WWE has always had a strong group of wrestlers that had a amateur wrestling background, Gerald Briscoe is still vehemently scouting such talent for the company. Will the thought of not being able to ply their skills on the grandest stage put off a lot of young amateur hopefuls from pursuing the sport.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2013/feb/12/wrestling-axe-2020-olympic-games

Rjd2

Amateur wrestling is possibly the most boring thing ever, but I'd prefer it to be in the games rather than Tennis, Footy and bloody golf where its merely a sideshow for all those present. The Olympics really should be the pinnacle of your sport, which at least the Olympics is for rassling.

And yet equestrian is still there. The mind boggles.

Xenji

Deleted User wrote: »

And yet equestrian is still there. The mind boggles.

Sure nothing beats a bit of dressage.

gnfnrhead

It's a shame, but not a shock. It's been around forever and hasnt really moved with the times. I can see why its not too popular. Once an event is no longer popular, it wont be around much longer.

DEFTLEFTHAND

I can't understand this, it's one of the oldest sports associated with the games. It's on record for being a part of the Ancient Olympics, we're talking about a sport which has been organised for over two and a half thousand years.

Diabhal Beag

I know there's history and all but there was never any real interest. Now if they were to get rid of olympic handball I think I'd go on a murderous rampage.

adamski8

Ffs . Why dont they just drop all the 'unpopular' sports so and just have all the cameras on the karadasians for the month! Talk about ****ing selling out the whole spirit of the games

glenjamin

Angle's two cents:

Kurt Angle spoke to Fox Sports about the decision of International Olympic Committee dropping wrestling from the Olympics, starting in 2020.

“We’re going to fight this. They can’t just drop it. They’re keeping badminton and that sport where you jump on a trampoline, and they’re dropping wrestling. It’s just crazy. I don’t know what this world is coming to. Things are changing.”

Xenji

Iron Shiek going a bit mental, well the way only he can.

"After 1000 years they take away the best sport in the world? This is the first time the dumb motherf**kers have no balls for they make the walking an Olympic sport."

"If I see anybody on the street that work from the IOC I swear to the Jesus I suplex them put them in camel clutch break their back make them humble."

"The #TEAMSHEIKIE respect the Olympic now they can all go f**k themselves and make the Curling Olympic sport because they all the biggest piece of no good s**t and I never watch the Olympic again. Also buy my t shirt [on my website] or go f**k yourself.”

Iron Sheik also tweeted these messages today:

"I wake up i get phone call from my agents @pagemagen he tell me no more wrestling in the Olympics it break my heart forever"

"F*CK THE IOC #teamsheikie"

"IOC I f*ck you up you disrespect the legend and my only sport Wrestling. They have no d*ck they make new sport of go f*ck yourself"

rovert

Wish Twitter had a word filter today

Charisteas

I'm not big on the Olympics but getting rid of Wrestling and introducing Golf just takes the pi$$.

Xenji

Charisteas wrote: »

I'm not big on the Olympics but getting rid of Wrestling and introducing Golf just takes the pi$$.

Golf, christ they still have Curling.

Angron

The Iron Sheik really is great

The part that gets me the most really is that something like golf is going in, and the more ridiculous parts of the equestrian stuff is still there (a gold medal for what is essentially dressing up and doing a fancy horse walk is ridiculous).

eh i dunno

Bret Hart ‏@BretHart
Wrestling is simply what true sport is all about. If the IOC drops it, I vow to never waste my time watching ribbon gymnastics and Dressage. The Olympics will be dead to me. What a travesty.

Nody

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

I can't understand this, it's one of the oldest sports associated with the games. It's on record for being a part of the Ancient Olympics, we're talking about a sport which has been organised for over two and a half thousand years.

Because the current leadership are utterly incompetent and corrupt (inc. but not limited to adding rules to make it easier for the judges to cheat when bribed); look at the latest Olympic games and the rulings that's going on. There are at least two or three shady medals a game (i.e. the judge not seeing what all other people see clear as day benig repeated fouls etc.) for the last couple olympic games that are so blatant that even amateurs spot it.

krudler

Get rid of amateur and bring in pro :pac: Could have a heel run in during the awards ceremony and steal the gold medal, 4 year build to the next games.

Rjd2

Charisteas wrote: »

I'm not big on the Olympics but getting rid of Wrestling and introducing Golf just takes the pi$$.

yep

The International Olympic Committee is dropping wrestling from competition after the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro, the result of some elaborate secret ballot it holds every so often to determine its 25 "core sports."

In part because golf and rugby are coming to the Olympics, something had to go. This time it was wrestling, apparently edged out by the modern pentathlon for survival.

As such, both freestyle (somewhat similar to what you see in American high schools and colleges) and Greco Roman, each of which dated back to the 1896 Games in Greece, will soon be history. Wrestling can try to get back in, but the odds are long.

This is a poor decision and it would be only slightly less poor of a decision if it was modern pentathlon (a five-event competition of fencing, horse riding, swimming, running and shooting) that got the boot instead.
It's golf that should never have been granted access in the first place.


Forget arguing the various strengths and weaknesses of each sport. That's often a cultural opinion. This is a global event and tastes vary. In the United States, badminton is considered a joke, something played at backyard barbeques, even occasionally while sober. In the overcrowded cities of third-world countries, however, it's a way to play tennis – basically street tennis for the non-wealthy. They don't have a lot of All-Lawn Tennis Clubs in Malaysia. Millions take badminton seriously and consider watching it at the highest level a sight to behold.


And that's part of why badminton is a fine Olympic sport.
Badminton also plays to another Olympic strength – winning the gold medal is a huge deal to those athletes, the pinnacle for most. So is winning a gold medal in modern pentathlon. Same for wrestling.


That's not at all the case for golf, where a gold medal isn't a green jacket.
The Olympics are special when they offer the ultimate global competition for a group of athletes, where everyone builds to this singular moment. It doesn't matter if it's a millionaire such as Michael Phelps or Usain Bolt, or a teenage gymnast with a dream, or a poor courageous middle distance runner out of Central Africa, the Olympics are an accomplishment that brings joy and tears and importance and everything.

Rory McIlroy will win a gold in Rio and then head off to his next event. Yes, it will be cool. Yes, he'll say the right thing. Yes, he'll enjoy it – the way the professional tennis players enjoy it – but it isn't bigger than the British Open or whatever major is next.


It probably won't be as important as even the Ryder Cup, golf's fine international competition.


The IOC should seek sports that care about the Olympics, not just jamming popular TV sports into the Olympic system and pretending it's the same thing.


One of the problems with the IOC is that its history of rampant corruption makes any of its decisions suspect. Who knows why each voter voted as they did, but it doesn't take much of a skeptic to think this was a political – and thus graft-filled – process. Each sport was forced to campaign for itself and, thus, against the others.


Imagine being a voter and courted with a "fact-finding" mission by the golf industry. Oh, the incredible seaside places you could go and experience to help convince you the entire world needs to be introduced to this wonderful sport. Perhaps, after a little Olympic promotion, they'll suddenly build a "Mali National" on a nice hillside perch overlooking Timbuktu.


Now imagine the wrestling community offering a tour of, well, what? An Alburnett (Iowa) High School dual meet? Actually, that might be pretty cool, except as good as the broasted chicken is down at Mahoney's, it might not meet the discerning palate of that IOC official fat off meals in Monaco.

In the end, wrestling probably didn't stand a chance, in part, because the IOC is forgetting another of its chief positives.
The Olympics are great at celebrating – and reminding everyone – what isn't necessarily a sport, but a primal activity.
Humans run. Humans swim. Humans ski. Humans fight. Humans shoot arrows out of bows. And humans wrestle. They've always wrestled. They wrestled probably before they even became fully human. There is no explaining the concept or how anyone came up with the idea for the sport – at some point, two guys were standing around and wanted to see who could pin the other.


That's the basis of so many great Olympic sports. Want to race to that big tree over there? Done. Want to see who can sled down this mountain faster? Sure. Want to find out who can swim across the river faster? You're on.

Even as the sports fade in popularity to more modern team activities such as soccer and basketball and football, there is something wonderfully pure about it. Obviously, golf is an old, simple pursuit itself, invented by bored Scottish sheepherders. It's done fine, however, without the Olympics. And while the Games should aim to stay current with the times, golf isn't half-pipe snowboarding, a sport the next generation of kids is suddenly into. Golf is actually losing players in many countries.

It's good to have a speed-skating race because we've had skating races since man invented the skate, and winning that race at the Olympics makes someone a legend in that sport.
The same way it does, or did, in wrestling.
Winning the gold in golf won't ever be treated that way.

That, more than anything, is why the IOC blew this one.

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/olympics--ioc-s-poor-decision-to-add-golf-costs-wrestling-its-spot-in-olympics-201325406.html

krudler

Its a joke that stuff like gold, tennis and basketball are in it, which are played by professional players. remember the Team USA that Michael Jordan was on? may as well just handed them the medals.

ShagNastii

What will the IOC gain from this bar getting space for Golf?

As has been stated there are thousands of years of history in wrestling's involvement with the Olympics. It really is one of the last pure sports left in the event.

See there are quite a few former medalists (Angle and a few MMAers) kicking up stink about this and I think will get there stories listened to. But I'd say the ship has very much sailed.

I remember reading that most of the Colleges in the states were dropping their wrestling programmes for more popular sports, such as Golf:mad:

Ethan Swagger

This crazy, brain dead decision has enormous ramifications. I reckon the backlash will be so intense that ultimately the IOC will be forced to do a major U turn on this. Mark my word.

orestes

Show me a golfer who would be so passionate about their sport that they would compete at the olympics and win gold with a broken fricking neck.

DEFTLEFTHAND

orestes wrote: »

Show me a golfer who would be so passionate about their sport that they would compete at the olympics and win gold with a broken fricking neck.

Tiger Woods won the 2008 US Open with a broken leg.

GTR63

Dana White wants Olympic Wrestling to turn into MMA more or less whereas Chris Jericho wants pro wrestling to be given a shot.
http://www.mmamania.com/2013/2/14/3988384/ufc-dana-white-demise-wrestling-evolution-mma
http://www.ewrestlingnews.com/news/13820/chris-jericho-makes-his-case-for-olympic-wrestling

Both ideas don`t even solve the current issues.

orestes

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

Tiger Woods won the 2008 US Open with a broken leg.

Hardly impressive for a sport where you get a little car to drive you from place to place before standing still to do the business part :pac:

ShagNastii

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

Tiger Woods won the 2008 US Open with a broken leg.

But was it a broken FRICKIN' leg?

Xenji

Kurt Angle won is Olympic qualifier with a broken neck

Angron

Yeah, winning a golf tournament with a broken leg is decidedly less impressive than winning a wrestling gold medal with a broken neck.

Ethan Swagger

GTR63 wrote: »

Dana White wants Olympic Wrestling to turn into MMA more or less whereas Chris Jericho wants pro wrestling to be given a shot.
http://www.mmamania.com/2013/2/14/3988384/ufc-dana-white-demise-wrestling-evolution-mma
http://www.ewrestlingnews.com/news/13820/chris-jericho-makes-his-case-for-olympic-wrestling

Both ideas don`t even solve the current issues.

Hey the more I think about it the more I think Chris Jericho is absolutely right.

Ando's Saggy Bottom

Im puzzled by the outcry over this from PW fans mainly. Like how many here bothered to watch the wrestling at the last (or indeed any) Olympics or ever paid any attention to it? Big meh from me tbh.

Handsome Bob

Pete Campbell wrote: »

Im puzzled by the outcry over this from PW fans mainly. Like how many here bothered to watch the wrestling at the last (or indeed any) Olympics or ever paid any attention to it? Big meh from me tbh.

Amateur wrestling still has a role to play in feeding new talent to the likes of WWE. Ziggler, for example, started as an amateur. Swagger of course too. Then there's the older examples of Lesnar and Angle.

This kind of snub can only hurt how amateur wrestling is viewed, and could well deter people from taking up the sport.

Angron

I watched the amateur wrestling at the olympics, I found it quite entertaining really.

gnfnrhead

I watched a good bit of it, but not all of it.

Mr.Nice Guy

Wrestling has been reinstated to the Olympics. From the BBC:

Wrestling has been reinstated as an Olympic sport for the 2020 Games after being voted in ahead of baseball/softball and squash.

International Olympic Committee (IOC) members conducted a secret electronic ballot on the issue in Buenos Aires.

Wrestling had been dropped from the 2020 Olympic schedule in February after the IOC assessed the performance of all 26 sports at London 2012.

gnfnrhead

It was a joke to ditch it to begin with. Glad they reversed the decision.

If it isnt working for them, change it rather than simply eliminating it. One of the oldest sports going and is much more deserving than a lot of the other "sports" at the events.

Bounty Hunter

gnfnrhead wrote: »

It was a joke to ditch it to begin with. Glad they reversed the decision.

If it isnt working for them, change it rather than simply eliminating it. One of the oldest sports going and is much more deserving than a lot of the other "sports" at the events.

PW in the Olympics! who needs KOTR to make up the big 5, now it would be Summerslam, Survivor Series, The Royal Rumble, Wrestlemania & The Olympics :pac:

glad they reversed the decision, Wrestling (non PW) may not be the greatest crowd puller but it dates back to the beginning and warrants a place in the olympics ahead of sports that will be competed over by professional athletes for whom this would not be the height of their sport (Basketball, Tennis etc)

Angron

Glad it got voted back in. If it had been ditched in favour of something like baseball it would have been utterly ridiculous in my mind.

the groutch

it's rediculous to think that tennis, golf, etc where professionals compete are put ahead of it.
most competitors in those events are there purely as a business decision.

citytillidie

the groutch wrote: »

it's rediculous to think that tennis, golf, etc where professionals compete are put ahead of it.
most competitors in those events are there purely as a business decision.

Football aswell should be no where near the Olympics

Angron

I think football is ok, just cause they have the age rule in it, where you can only have 3 players over 23 I believe.

GTR63

citytillidie wrote: »

Football aswell should be no where near the Olympics

Yeah I never got the reason to have u23's playing by then you should have linked up with your senior side & there is more than enough underage groups. U18, 19, 20 & 21's.

smellmepower

Got a mention on the Second Captains podcast today,along with Wrestlemania and the Big Boss Man.

GTR63

smellmepower wrote: »

the Big Boss Man.

Did they mention the whole big show angle?

connemara man

The serious question here is what country will Kofi Kingston represent?

gnfnrhead

connemara man wrote: »

The serious question here is what country will Kofi Kingston represent?

Whatever country pays him the most. That could make a good gimmick for him

Rjd2

the groutch wrote: »

it's rediculous to think that tennis, golf, etc where professionals compete are put ahead of it.
most competitors in those events are there purely as a business decision.

yep The Olympics should be the pinnacle of your sport and the athletes career.

An Olympic Gold medal for the likes of Nadal and Woods will be an afterthought compared to the Majors/Slams in their sports when all said is done:eek:

citytillidie

GTR63 wrote: »

Yeah I never got the reason to have u23's playing by then you should have linked up with your senior side & there is more than enough underage groups. U18, 19, 20 & 21's.

And there is world cups for all those age groups