Ignoring that it is the most elemental and ancient of all of the Olympic sports, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) voted Tuesday to remove wrestling from the Summer Games starting in 2020.
The decision surprised many pundits who expressed their thoughts in not so favorable terms.
"In a bureaucratic decision that ranks right up there on the 'stupid and unneeded mistake' scale, along with New Coke and Napoleon invading Russia, the International Olympic Committee voted on Tuesday to drop wrestling from the Olympic program in the 2020 Summer Games, tossing away a constant of the modern Olympics since the ancient Greek Games were revived in 1896," said Reid Forgrave on foxsports.com.
His thoughts were shared by Olympic historian David Wallechinsky who said, "I think this is a really stupid decision, it was in the ancient Olympics. In London, 29 different countries won medals. This is a popular sport," according to New York Times.
Voting wrestling, both the freestyle and Greco-Roman, out of the Olympics, many feel have to do solely with the lack of strong television ratings.
This is simply a dumb, shortsighted decision, based on fleeting things like television ratings...Wrestling doesn't garner the TV ratings of, say, beach volleyball," said Forgraves on foxsports.com.
However, this doesn't mean that wrestling is done forever as an Olympic sport; they can apply for reclusion for the 2020 Olympics, but will be fighting seven other sports who also want to be included.
"The others are a combined bid from baseball and softball, karate, squash, roller sports, sport climbing, wakeboarding and wushu. They will be vying for a single opening in 2020," according to abcnews.com.
(Wushu is a martial-art popular in China, and with China's population, it might mean big ratings.)
The other sports that were on the bubble of being cut were modern pentathlon, taekwondo and field hockey, according to The Associated Press.
Some feel that this decision wasn't only based on ratings, but had some politics involved.
Forgrave reported how "Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr., the son of the former IOC president, lobbied to keep modern pentathlon over wrestling. He also happens to be the vice president of the international governing body for modern pentathlon, and a member of the IOC board."
Holding the vote as a secret ballot with IOC president Jacques Rogge not casting a vote at all doesn't help the IOC's argument that it wasn't about politics.
"It just cries out 'Dirty player' to me. How can you take a sport as weak and ill-conceived as modern pentathlon and pick it instead of wrestling? I'm just heartbroken over this whole thing," said Scott Casber who hosts a nationally syndicated television and radio show on wrestling, to FOXSports.com.
Though IOC spokesman Mark Adams said, "today's decision is not final" because the executive board still has to make the final decision at a later date, it is unlikely that the committee would vote in a sport that they just voted to get rid of.
Nonetheless, wrestling is still going to fight until the end and will use any and all leverage they have and/or can get.
"We're going to fight this," said Kurt Angle, who provided a stirring Olympic wrestling moment with his gold medal in 1996, to FOXSports.com on Tuesday. "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."
Kurt Angle (R) fights for gold medal at 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta, Ga. (Twitter)It is hard to accept, but a sad reality, that wrestling, a sport that so many, so-called, third-world countries, like Armenia and Bulgaria have constantly been very active in, due to it being the only shot for a gold they have, will now, probably, not have any representation in the event that is supposed to "bring the world together."
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