Wrestling out of the Olympics - No joke

No, basketball has a good following in Europe and wide participation overall. I'm not a wrestling fan, but I really liked that it had high numbers of participation globally and was fairly accessable, unlike some other sports like Modern Pentathlon (really just a rich person's sport- I was pretty surprised they didn't axe that! but then again $$ talks).

The main issue was supposedly with Wrestling's Anti-doping programm (which then begs the question- why haven't they thrown out Weightlifting, Cycling, or Nordic Skiing yet??), as well as popularity and financing (alot of other sports come to mind here too.....).

so what? dead sports like wrestling can't compete with sports people want to watch.

democracy in action wrote:

so what? dead sports like wrestling can't compete with sports people want to watch.

Actually, wrestling as it was practiced in ancient greece is closer to mma than to olympic wrestling, so in that respecting it's alive and (wait for it) kicking.

If the Olympics continue to make decisions like this, this will be the beginning of the end of the Olympics. Putting new sports which have low participation in to the games in place of old sports with high participation doesn't make sense for long-term sustainability. It will degrade the quality of competition and undercut the prestige of the Olympic brand, which is the most valuable asset they have. People watch the Olympics to see the best athletes in the world compete for the highest prize they can achieve.

This decision is literally unbelievable to me.

for dudes who like dudes

I dont understand the hate for bmx. its very similar to cycling, its not a freestyle competition.

bmx takes serious fitness and skill. it feels very much like running a quarter mile. i think its a reasonable addition compared to a lot of the other bullshit that goes on.

Wrestling is just about the most traditional sport there is. This is a travesty. This is going to destroy the popularity of wrestling right down to the high school level.

Totally agree, diving got a huge boost from "is it diving or gay porn"

the next event to be kicked out will be bobsleigh, men´s double. every four years a telecommunication collapse in the ioc headquarter during the winter olympics due to thousands of parents, thrilled by tv pictures of two male athletes on each other, in skin-tight suits.

wrestling out of the olympics - a sad day.

I believe Wrestling will be voted back in. The discussion I had with a trusted knowledgeable source is that Modern Pentathlon did not have the votes to get back in to the Olympics if it was taken out, but wrestling has the votes to get back in to the Olympics for the 2016 games. Totally political decision with some risk for the sport, but probably not going to see the demise of Wrestling as an Olympic sport anytime soon.

When will track be booted out? There's one sport that is losing popularity!