"Nope."
Wrestling is not a sport. No, I’m not talking about pro wrestling (for once). I’m talking about wrestling wrestling.
Following the removal of baseball from the Olympics in a quest to get Brandon to stop watching it completely, International Olympic Committee leaders are planning to drop amateur wrestling from the 2020 Olympics. You know, the sport that has been part of the games since 1896 and kinda-sorta represents the entire “man vs. man” thing the Olympics (and sports in general) are going for.
Oddly, the angle the Los Angeles Times write-up of the story takes is that modern pentathlon is being removed, and how nobody gives a shit about modern pentathlon, and what modern pentathlon is. They just lump wrestling in with table tennis and badminton somewhere in the middle.
The IOC will also review preparations for the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia — less than a year away — and the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro.
The sports expected to be on the hot seat for removal besides modern pentathlon: Taekwondo, wrestling, badminton and table tennis.
The report analyzes more than three dozen criteria, including television ratings, ticket sales, anti-doping policy and global participation and popularity.
… keeping in mind that synchronized swimming, handball, race walk, shooting and “Nordic Combined” will all still happen at their appropriate Olympics, just not wrestling or baseball. Pretty soon the Olympics is just going to be gymnasts posing on the sidelines of a soccer game, holding up a big sign that says PLEASE LIKE SOCCER, BECAUSE OLYMPICS.
But hey, golf is joining the Olympics in 2016. That’s exciting and athletic, right?
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Because fuck the most traditionally Olympic sport.
Modern Pentathlon is actually really great. It should stay, but we should also bring back a Classic Pentathlon (WHICH HAS A WRESTLING COMPONENT) as well.
We should also get rid of all horse sports. And Ribbon Dancing. And anything else until we get WRESTLING back.
Is this because Jack Swagger was all racist last night?
IOC, you are the fucking worst, dumbest collection of empty-headed, corrupt, awful human beings ever assembled.
Agreed. It is all about money. Fuck the IOC.
FIFA is offended that you’re giving them such short shrift in this contest.
apperently iton shiek is pissed aqbout it as well [www.tmz.com]
IOC still isn’t as bad the FIFA. But they are close.
I don’t know what goes in the Penthalon since I barely watched Bejing or London. Nothing about the Olympics excites me anymore.
handball is awesome, US didn’t have a team make it so it wasn’t shown often on TV during London
Wrestling isn’t going anywhere. Russia’s and every country ending in -istan’s favorite sport is rolling around on the ground with other guys.
Now what will there be for Kurt Angle to do with a broken freakin’ neck?
If you get rid of wrestling, then everyone should have to look like the original games. Athletes, get naked and oil up!
I assume that’ll get rid of horse sports pretty quickly.
That would make for some very selective viewing instead of just not watching entirely. Dude…how many Olympic sports would look batshit insane naked and oiled? Just to start off with, hurdles.
And the rule should apply to the Winter Olympics too, because frostbite. And naked curling.
Hopefully, it would get rid of a bunch of aspects of gymnastics.
Well, nudity laws would disqualify plenty of gymnasts anyway.
What swimmer would have the balls (sic) to go castrato to reduce drag first, I wonder?
You take back what you said about handball. That is an athletic sport, and fun as hell to watch/play. My favorite team sport that was somehow in both my high school and college curriculum.
I hate this crusade against almost every other sport that has started due to this.
Yeah. Wrestling shouldn’t be removed, but we shouldn’t take out our anger on other sports. Instead we should work on showing WHY wrestling deserves to be an Olympic sport.
So with Taekwondo out MMA has a way in.
This is ludicrous. “Yes, let’s get rid of Greco-Roman wrestling. It has NOTHING to do with the Olympics. Started by the Greeks. Wait….what?”
Um it’s “Grieco-Roman Wrestling” because it was invented by the star of If Looks Could Kill.
You could eliminate the entire Olympics and I wouldn’t care. If a sport isn’t popular enough to support a professional scene, then why prop it up? Don’t even bother saying amateurism, because that horse has been dead for decades.
How can they not recognize the unifying power of Wrestling? I mean, in 2011, when Anthony Robles won the NCAA’s was like the only time I’ve ever rooted for a Sun Devil.
In which season of community was the episode Modern Pentathlon?
[www.tmz.com]
I saw this at the gym today and I damn near lost it. This is total bullshit. So, they have competitive horse dancing, white water rafting and trampoline but not fucking greco-roman wrestling!?! The sport that was a loosely based on a sport that existed in the original Olympics? This is some major bullshit.
The problem Wrestling faces is (if I’m not mistaken) that since quite some time, the rules have been far from consistent every Olympics. How can you then be taken seriously if the rules change every two years?
But still, I want wrestling in the Olympics, because it’s awesome. And yay Handball!
as long as they keep boat racing, horse dancing and toy sword fighting, im cool with this move.
At least they admit that TV ratings and event attendance are factors in their decisions, they don’t say it is the deciding factor (which it probably is) but the NCAA would never admit to making decisions about their “amateur” athletics based on money.
Just do like they did with basketball and let professionals participate. That will raise ratings and get people interested again.
i would pay to see Zack Ryder wrestling a angry drunk Russian Wrestler.woo.woo.woo….