Wrestling is a primordial sport. In its basic form, it consists of two fighters pitted against one another in a contest of strength and willpower. According to Olympic.org, the official website of the Olympic Movement, the ancient sport has been documented on cave drawings that date back to 3000 B.C. It was one of the first sports included in the ancient Olympics in 708 B.C. In the ancient Olympic Games, regimented wrestling was seen as a martial art that tested the fortitude and mental acuity of Greek warriors.
On Tuesday, Feb. 12, members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) coalesced in a decision to drop one Olympic sport from the 2020 Olympics. A total of 26 core sports were evaluated, including events from the ancient and modern pentathlon. By vote of secret ballot, wrestling was one sport that got the boot.
[quote]Many do not accept adherence to tradition as a valid reason to keep wrestling in the pentathlon; but for a sport that does not have any serious professional league, the Olympics give wrestlers a chance to prove their skill on an international level.[/quote]
Coleman Scott, a 2012 bronze-medalist wrestler from the United States, spent his whole life training for the chance to compete in the Olympics. He lived from paycheck to paycheck, despite having a college degree, to pursue a dream he had since childhood. Coleman was thankful for the opportunity to participate in high school and college wrestling in the United States. But collegiate wrestling is distinctly American; for every other country in the world, the Olympics are the only chance wrestlers have to pursue glory.
The IOC supposedly considered many factors before reaching a decision. One of the central issues was ticket sales, according to USA Today. According to The Associated Press, wrestling received a low score on its popularity evaluation during the 2012 London Games. Strangely enough, wrestling sold 113,851 tickets out of 116,854 tickets available at the 2012 Olympics. Wrestling also received an average of 23 million television viewers worldwide, not counting Internet views.
Kim Caple, an ESPN columnist with an extensive pedigree in Olympic coverage, believes that there are other Olympic sports more worthy of elimination than wrestling. Caple says that the popularity of games like table tennis, trampoline and synchronized swimming pale in comparison to wrestling. It would be interesting to see the IOC’s thought process when they determined that trampoline jumping is more worthy than the ancient sport of wrestling. Taking Caple’s analysis into consideration, the whole debacle doesn’t make much sense.
As the wrestling community unites in opposition to the IOC’s perfunctory ruling, the IOC’s executive board will meet in St. Petersburg, Russia, to decide which new sport to include in the 2020 Olympic Games. Wrestling will still be a contender in the decision, although many doubt the likelihood that the sport will reclaim its longstanding position in the Olympics. For those of us who admire and venerate the skill and history surrounding Greco-Roman wrestling, let us hope that the board members will reconsider their initial decision.