The IOC executive board decided to put wrestling on a voting
block with six other sports to decide which one will be on the 2020 Olympic
program. Sports that were also close to being expelled were canoeing, modern
pentathlon, taekwondo, and field hockey.
Other sports mentioned by the media to be in trouble were badminton,
fencing, and cycling.
Since wrestling is not a traditional sport in Taiwan, I
don't really have any strong feelings about this decision. I do feel puzzled
about why wrestling and it does have historical ties to the Olympics. This
sport holds true to the statement "higher, faster, stronger."
My strongest reactions are to some of the online comments
people have posted. Nothing against wrestling but some of the comments are just
plain idiotic. Here are some example:
"They choose curling over wrestling."
-Um…..we're talking about the summer Olympics not the winter
Olympics. Curling wasn't even talked about at the executive meeting.
"They choose synchronized swimming and rhythmic
gymnastics over wrestling."
-This statement is misleading. The board was all about
kicking out a sports federation. So kicking out rhythmic gymnastics would mean
kicking out the FIG, which at the same time would be kicking out every
gymnastics discipline. No FIG means no Gabby Douglas. Same thing for
synchronized swimming which is under FINA. If FINA was dropped, all the
swimming events would have been dropped. Yes that means no Michael Phelps or
Ian Crocker.
"Nobody watches badminton and table tennis except for
China."
-This statement is just so wrong on so many levels. Yes it
is popular in China but it's also popular in the rest of Asia-Indonesia,
Malaysia, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, Singapore…… Even countries such as Germany and
Denmark have strong traditions in this sport.
Also these sports have professional tours. These tour stops
have sponsors and television contracts.
In addition to World Championships, badminton has the prestigious Thomas
and Uber Cup for team events. I could go on. Wrestling has no such thing.
"Badminton needs to be replace due to the 2012
scandal"
Wrestling has had its own scandals. From Muslims refusing to
fight Israelis to a Swedish athlete dumping his medal onto the mat, wrestling
needs to clean up too. Plus watch this:
Disgusting.
Plus the Great Britain team tried to hire a bunch of
Ukrainians to wrestle for them in this past Olympics. It blew up in their face
when one of them failed a drug test.
"Wrestling has had so many iconic moments like Rulon
Gardner."
I say SO HAS EVERY SPORT! I know of touching stories in every sport.
And to those that say modern pentathlon and taekwondo needs
to be replaced, these sports federation lobbied hard and have constantly
changed the format of their competitions in an effort to become more relevant.
Modern pentathlon has combined running and shooting into one event and
taekwondo has added video replay. Wrestling has done no such thing. They
refused to drop Greco-Roman when the IOC told them to and they have more weight
classes for men than women.
Again I have no personal vendetta against wrestling but
trying to justify one sport over another without doing proper information makes
me frustrated.
So wrestling will be put up against sports like
baseball/softball, roller sports, wake boarding, squash, wushu, and rock climbing. I'm expecting an
uproar from the wrestling community to get wrestling back in and I think they
have a 70% chance of succeeding.
Sports that would benefit Taiwan would be baseball/softball
and roller sports. Unfortunately, I don't think they'll succeed. The IOC just
needs to raise the cap on the number of sports.
What's your thinking to the IOC's decision?
