Wrestling Cut From 2020 Olympics: International Olympic Committee Votes to Exclude Wrestling from 2020 Summer Games

The International Olympic Committee has decided today that Freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling will not be included in the 2020 Olympics. The decision to cut this event, which has a rich history with the Olympics, has been highly criticized and contested. Details for the exclusion have yet to be released, but the decision was reached by a secret ballot held by the committee's executive board in Lausanne, Switzerland.

In May another Olympic committee meeting will be taking place, allowing for a second vote on the future of the sport in the Olympics, but it is highly doubtful the decision will be overturned. The International Olympic Committee has recently been looking to draw a younger television audience and allow fewer athletes to participate (about 10,500). Wrestling has to compete with climbing and wakeboarding in order to maintain its Olympic position. Clearly these other two sports are more youth-friendly than wrestling. Another concern is that Greco-Roman wrestling does not have any women participants and Freestyle wrestling only just gained female participants in 2004.

An International Olympics Committee told reporters in Lausanne:

"[T]his is a process of renewing and renovating the program for the Olympics. In the view of the executive board, this was the best program for the Olympic Games in 2020. It's not a case of what's wrong with wrestling; it is what's right with the 25 core sports."

Like many others, Olympic historian David Wallenchinsky did not agree with the decision to cut wrestling and stated:

"I think this is a really stupid decision. It was in the ancient Olympics. It has been in the modern Olympics since 1896. In London, 29 different countries won medals. This is a popular sport."

Today's vote did see some survivors despite the fall of wrestling. Modern pentathlon found its way into the 2020 games. This was another sport under threat of being cut and it was actually less popular than wrestling. Fortunately it has a supporter in the form of a former I.O.C. president's son. Another issue that surrounds the dropping of wrestling in 2020, is that the current I.O.C. president, Jacques Rogge, did not even vote in this secret ballot. There is certainly a lot of controversy around this Olympic vote. All of this makes it seem like there are some shady deals going on surrounding the biggest sporting even in the world. Who is to gain with the loss of wrestling? A lot of attention is focused on the sport of Wushu. This martial art has been gaining lots of media coverage today. My advice is to watch out for this one.