No more Wrestling in the Olympics (Page 2)

Ping pong!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As a former wrestler, as a kid you dreamed about going to the olympics.  The olympics was the pinnacle of the sport.

Sad.  I'm really bummed about it.

boxing (not all matches are decided by KO but by a ref)

Can't the same be said for basketball? Haven't the American men won the past 5 Olympics and the women something like 7?

 With the World Baseball Classic taking place now I doubt baseball would make it back into the Olympics.

Theoretically, it's sad to see wrestling go since it's one of the oldest sports in the olympics...

But will I actually miss it?  No.  I don't think I watched one single minute of live or delayed wrestling on TV in the past 4 Olympics.  However, I have tuned in to watch syncronized diving, syncronized swimming, ping pong, badminton, and some of those other goofy sports.  So go figure.

I think the vast majority of olympic events are dominated by professionals.

Even in Triathlon the top...well basically everyone was a professional.

Insanity that wrestling isn't included...

this is what I feel should be a main criteria...and really, should be amateurs.  Possibly athletes that if they win they get purses, sure, since they have to support themselves. 

I've always used the argument that Pentathlon is in it b/c its one of the originals.  Now that they are taking those out, sheesh. 

I always thought that you had to be an amateur to compete in the Olympics. There was the big deal this year about one of the swimmers - Lochte or Phelps appearing in some photos and the questions involving the timing and their eligibility to participate. I remember when I was younger that figure skaters had to be amateurs, maybe they still do. What changed that allowed professional teams in?

Wrestling out, but golf is in? Really? And I will never understand what horse dancing has to do with the olympics either. 

Badminton is an excellent sport, but agree the system seemed corrupt/rigged.

Best article about why it was dropped. 

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-02-12/sports/ct-spt-0213-olympic-wrestling--20130213_1_full-ioc-membership-ioc-executive-board-international-olympic-committee-decision

Basically FILA (Wrestling's global federation) was not actively lobbying.  From the article:

The problem is the places where wrestling is most popular — Iran, Russia and several other republics of the former Soviet Union — have no clout on the IOC executive board. Neither does the country with the most Olympic wrestling medals, the United States.

None of the executive board's 15 members is from those countries. Eight are from Western Europe. Several have blatant conflicts of interest because they are past or present top officials of the international federations that govern sports under consideration Tuesday, most notably Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr. of Spain.

Good article from USA Wrestling:

http://www.themat.com/section.php?section_id=3&page=showarticle&ArticleID=26046

Wrestling is the #4 top medal earner for the United States; they are prepared to fight hard to keep it.  They have set up a Facebook page "Keep Wrestling in the Olympics" and updates can also be found on themat.com.

Let's call it for what it really is.  This is a panty waist genetation with a generation of panty waists'.  Gymnastics, swimming, and diving sell air time.  A brutal, tough, sweaty, competative sport like wrestling is only watched by those who care.  If the WWII generation was the "greatest generation", this generation of skinny jeans wearing kids would be the antithesis of that, thus the decision to remove wrestling.

Marginalizing the sport with "pro wrestling" refferences is exactly what I'm reffering to in the above^^ 

On this comment, I have to call you as well. If you spent some time around this generation in tough circumstances like say a war you'd have a higher opinion. They are smarter than any generation before them and they need leadership, not put downs. I've seen this generation on two deployments to Iraq and daily in garrison. They're sharp, they're smart, they look things up if you tell them something to check the accuracy or call you on the inaccuracy of the comment. They do need leadership and calling them "panty waists (did you mean "waste")" is not leadership.

Besides, maybe you missed every one of the linked articles, but the decision to eliminate wrestling came not from this generation, it came from the old white jackazzes from Western Europe. Many of them members of "the greatest generation."

Wrestling got eliminated because they failed to go on the offensive and they got overconfident. That's usually a recipe to get beat both on the mat and in the real world.

Edited by GomesBolt 2013-02-14 6:04 AM

maybe it is time to have 2 Olympic games.  One that appeals to the masses and one that doesn't.

I am reading Quiet right now, great book.  It seems clear to me that the olympics are run by a bunch of extroverts for a bunch of extroverts.  Big show etc.  They had a thing here, it is the 25th anniversary of the Olympics in Calgary.  They put it on for 50 million dollars.  The Olympics in Sochi..... 50 billion.  I don't get it.  First of all, no one cares about these sports.  Any of these sports.  Figure skating, pentathlon, heptathlon, show jumping.  Athletics in general.  Judo.  When I say no one, I mean in the sense that I can say no one cares about triathlon.  What is the point of showcasing sports no one cares about except every 4 years.  Why make it a big show.  It isn't a big show the other three years, except for the people who care and can't find it on TV.  And for that matter, why isn't NFL style football in the Olympics, or NASCAR.  I mean those would be big draws right.  Ha, could you imagine a US dream team in football.  HA.   So why not make it a small show.  This is stupid.  It is about money and getting the media to hook the public so that the media is willing to pay zillions for the rights to cover it.

I don't like watching football or soccer or hockey.  Not that those sports don't require skill.  It is the pomp and circumstance of it all.  And I like Phelps and he is a beast and I would love to watch him but I hardly can stomach that coverage.  Someone said in this thread if someone has to tell you who won it is not a sport it is a pageant.  Well I would say there is a related point, that being the more the fans and the media make it a pageant then less important the sport is. 

You know what would make a good Olympics, worth watching, is if the people who competed had to hold down a 40 hour a week job.

Freaks of nature them all.

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this post has been an advertizement for the ignore button.

Yeah, I did come off on a little rant in this thread.  Just a little dissapointed that they're dropping a sports highest stage away from those who spend the majority of their life to compete at it at the highest level.  It's not like wrestling is irrelevent to those who compete at it, and there are plenty of nations that have high level programs, same as gymnastics, and swimming.  Like those sports, the athletes who wrestle also train there a.. off to make and compete at the olympics. 

The best thing ever written on a triathlon forum.

It's cool bro.  I just think both USA Wrestling and FILA have done a very poor job of trying to get their brand out there and promote the sport. 

You only see Wrestling by accident when you're channel surfing and happen upon it.  It's never promoted ahead of time and broadcast by a major station.  Then, when it is, the coverage does a poor job of explaining the sport.  "Why'd he just get 2 points?" If they explained the sport better and made a deal to broadcast it more often with someone, you could get more interest from the general public. 

I wonder if making them compete for 2020 wasn't a warning shot to the sport more than it was an actual decision to eliminate a sport.  But who knows what the IOC discusses in their meetings...

Next we'll have synchronized triathlon!

Seriously though, I have never liked any activity with scores for style (I call them activities as I do not consider them sports). That includes figure skating, gymnastics, etc. There are incredible athletes in these activities but the entire thing is too subjective.

Trampoline, dressage, rhythm anything are dumb. Some of these seem to be made up for the Olympics. I know badmitten is huge around the world, but I do not watch. That does not mean it needs to be dropped.

Golf should not be part of the Olympics. The pro golfers are going to move on to there next big tournament with millions of dollars on the line like nothing happened at the Olympics. Whereas the Olympics are the pinnacle in wrestling!

FWIW: I do not consider whether the US is good at a sport as a criteria in my judgement. Team handball is an amazing sport to watch. We never see it because we stink at it. (It is sort of a cross between basketball and soccer).