In a surprising move, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) executive board on Tuesday agreed to drop wrestling
from 2020 Olympics. The IOC executive board met in Lausanne and
decided to remove wrestling, part of the Olympics since the first modern
Games in 1896 in Athens, from the list of 25 'core' sports.
Wrestling
will now join the seven shortlisted sports - baseball/softball, karate,
sport climbing, squash, wakeboarding and wushu - vying for the
inclusion in the 2020 Olympics as an additional 28th sport.
The
decision, however, is not final and all eight sports (their respective
international federations) are scheduled to make presentations to the
executive board at a meeting in St Petersburg, Russia, in May.
The
executive board will then decide which of the eight sports should be
recommended to the General Assembly in Buenos Aires in September for
inclusion as an additional sport on the 2020 programme.
"This is
not the end of the process, this is purely a recommendation," IOC
spokesman Mark Adams was quoted as saying by Reuters. "It is the Session
which is sovereign. It was a decision to look at the core sports, what
works best for the Olympic Games. This was the best programme for the
2020 Olympics. This is not about what's wrong with wrestling but what is
good for the Games."
Considering that wrestling has been part of
the Olympic programme for such a long time, it stands a decent chance
of making its way back into the fold for the 2020 Games.
But
wrestling is expected to face stiff competition from sports like karate
and wushu, which will be strongly pushed by China. The Russian block,
which has a rich wrestling culture, is likely to pitch for wrestling,
besides some other countries.
"It is surprising. It was expected
that sports like taekwondo and hockey, which doesn't enjoy a huge
support, may be axed but wrestling was certainly not expected. It just
indicated how FILA (international wrestling federation) has been unable
to promote the sport, otherwise it is very difficult to drop wrestling
which has been in the Olympics for more than 100 years," said a source.
London
Olympics silver medallist Sushil Kumar expressed shock over the
development. But the two-time Olympic medallist said he was confident
that wrestling would be accepted back. "I just can't see any reason why
the IOC decided to remove wrestling from 2020 Games. Wrestling is a
popular sport and I am sure the IOC will rethink its decision and the
sport will be back before any damage is done," he said.
"News
such as this would surely be a disappointment for wrestlers not only in
India but everywhere else. In India, wrestlers have improved a lot over
the years and gone are the days when we used to go at the Olympics just
to fill in numbers. Now, we know we have the wrestlers who can win
medals," said the wrestler.
Sushil's coach and mentor Satpal said
a decision to remove wrestling from Olympics could spell doom for a
huge number of Indians who are sweating hard to win medals.
"I
have so many wrestlers training in my academy. They are young and are
great medal prospects for the future, but such a decision will be a huge
setback to their dreams of standing at the podium in the Olympics,"
said Satpal.
Wrestling Federation of India secretary-general Raj
Singh said: "I received a few calls from our wrestlers, including Sushil
and Yogeshwar, and told them to go ahead with their training for the
2016 Rio Olympics.
"The IOA has been suspended, so we will write
to the govt to take up the matter with the IOC. Besides, we will also
write to the FILA."
Twenty-eight sports are to be part of the
2020 Olympics, out of which 25 are in the core group. Golf and rugby
have been added into the Olympic programme for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro
Games. As many as 26 sports featured at the last year's London Games and
344 athletes competed in 11 medal events in freestyle and seven in
Greco-Roman.
The decision to drop wrestling is also surprising as
modern pentathlon, which comprises fencing, horse riding, swimming,
running and shooting events, seemed under heavy scrutiny and was
expected to be removed from the list. Taekwondo, badminton and table
tennis were speculated to be faxing the axe before the executive board
met on Tuesday.
International Olympic Committee drops wrestling from 2020 Games
Thursday, 14 February 2013
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