Put your money where your mouth is. Madrid is a massive outsider for the 2020 games. 11/1
Tokyo is odds on.
I'm not even a fan of wrestling but it is indeed a disgrace that it might be cut.
Put your money where your mouth is. Madrid is a massive outsider for the 2020 games. 11/1
Tokyo is odds on.
I'm not even a fan of wrestling but it is indeed a disgrace that it might be cut.
It seemed inconceivable to me that wrestling - a sport that dates to the ancient Olympics - would be canned. So embarrassing. If that happens, will the Olympics eventually just turn into a basketball, soccer, golf, fest??How could it happen? An article from Sports Illustrated's Brian Cazeneuve explained it very well to me.Seems like it's very well tied to politics relating to the 2020 bid. Basically, wrestling is big in Japan and Istanbul so if it's cut, then those countries are unlikely to get the bid and it will end up in Spain.So embarrassing.http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/more/news/20130212/wrestling-olympics/?sct=hp_t2_a6&eref=sihp
Brian Cazeneuve wrote:
Some other factors may be in play here, especially given the structure of the IOC and the allegiances that it creates. Several IOC members have ties to international sport governing bodies and to cities bidding for rights to host Olympic Games. Consider the three cities bidding for the rights to host the Olympics in 2020: Madrid, Istanbul and Tokyo. Wrestling is one of the most popular Olympic sports in Turkey. One knock against the Turkish bid is that even though the national Olympic committee has vied repeatedly for the Games, and shown the willingness to finance bids, the country's sporting passions are limited to a narrower group of core sports than in the other cities. The loss of wrestling would be a blow to the Turks. Japan is the leading nation in women's wrestling, with strong contenders today, and presumably eight years down the road, in all four classes. The loss of wrestling would be a blow to the Japanese.
and Spain is the most connected country thanks to Samaranch.
Brian Cazeneuve wrote:But of the nations with bid cities in the mix for 2020, Spain is the most politically powerful of the three. Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr., the son of the former IOC president, is now an IOC executive board member. Wrestling is not as popular in Spain as it is in the other two countries. Samaranch is also a vice president of modern pentathlon's international committee and one of 15 IOC executive board members who voted on the sport program.
The good news is it looks like it's not a definite cut.
No Rojo, that's not how (or why) wrestling got cut and Modern Pentathlon didn't.
This is:
Wakeboarding? F*cking wakeboarding? Don't they have the X-Games for this kind of stuff?
Consider This wrote:
Wakeboarding? F*cking wakeboarding? Don't they have the X-Games for this kind of stuff?
Like jogging 24 times around and around and around a stupid @ss track is any more legitimate of an event.
Funny you should mention Japan, because Japanese wrestling (Judo) isn't being cut.
get a REAL job skinny wrote:
Like jogging 24 times around and around and around a stupid @ss track is any more legitimate of an event.
Okay Troll, go back in your cave now.
get a REAL job skinny wrote:
Consider This wrote:Wakeboarding? F*cking wakeboarding? Don't they have the X-Games for this kind of stuff?
Like jogging 24 times around and around and around a stupid @ss track is any more legitimate of an event.
I'm pretty sure that there is no event which involves jogging around a track 24 times.
But seriously, yes, long-distance footraces are a more legitimate event than performing aerial maneuvers while being towed behind a motorboat on a piece of fiberglass.
It's all about the $$$$$$$$$$ trail.
There are other sports that I would have nixed first, e.g. weightlifting, cycling (because of the drug problems), basketball (it's only one country that can win anyway), synchronized swimming, indoor volleyball (who wants to see that?), etc.
However, I understand that wrestling does not have any TV viewership, many of the "athletes" are overweight and lastly I don't find it particularly interesting to see two man roll around on a mattress. If I was into that stuff, I'd watch gay p0rn.
This makes me sad. I used to watch Hulk Hogan, Macho Man and all the other great wrestlers in the 90's. Can't believe they're taking this fine sport out of the Olympics? Why?
At least they didn't add bullfighting.
Womens indoor volleyball = least athletic of all olympic disciplines. many of the ladies literally had guts hanging over their booty shorts. i was so mad watching them, it was a disgrace...
Sure the ones that are 6'3" have amazing figures and i totally love them, but some of them are just simply in horrible PHYSICAL CONDITION (since i know many of u will write 'oh and did you go to the olympics?') No, i'm not an olympian. yes, i'm in better physical athletic condition than any indoor women's olympic volleyball participant.
Get rid of racewalking - the concept is completely irrational.
There is no drug problem in track and field.
I happen to like indoor volleyball.
plas e mmm ingo wrote:
Get rid of racewalking - the concept is completely irrational.
This falls under the category of athletics, which is one of the 25 core sports. Racewalking is simply a set of events within an umbrella of another sport, so it is not comparable with wrestling, which, itself is a sport.
I do agree with one of the articles posted, in which some wrestling higher-up suggests that cycling could take time off to clean up its act. I don't personally watch wrestling during the olympics, but it would be a shame to get rid of it.
Politics and the power game aside, if you ask the question: "what makes the Olympics important as an event?" and go over the history of Olympics as a way of bringing together countries in the peace- and understanding-building bridge of friendly competition, you can start to build a solid set of criteria for which sports should be accepted or not. However, when you factor in the public's interest in followingthe event, the picture becomes blurry.
A lot of sports, athletics included, only receive any widespread public recognition every four years when the Olympics come around. They've been ipso facto characterized as Olympic sports. I'd go so far as to say that most sports watched at the Olympics are mainly Olympic sports (I'm thinking of fencing, wrestling, gymnastics, etc. but also winter sports such as bobsledding). As such, you can protest the decision to cut wrestling and not "modern" pentathlon, but you have to recognize that the debate would by no means be on sure footing.
The only real metric I see would be to promote sports that can be practiced in every participating country, in which case wrestling-yay modern pentathlon-nay.
Nutella1 wrote:
There are other sports that I would have nixed first, e.g. weightlifting, cycling (because of the drug problems), basketball (it's only one country that can win anyway), synchronized swimming, indoor volleyball (who wants to see that?), etc.
However, I understand that wrestling does not have any TV viewership, many of the "athletes" are overweight and lastly I don't find it particularly interesting to see two man roll around on a mattress. If I was into that stuff, I'd watch gay p0rn.
On TV viewership, I don't remember really having the opportunity to watch wrestling in the 2012 Olympics. I believe the only reason diving gets any viewers is because the TV networks put it on when other more popular sports are happening.
I dont know boss. Just dont seem like the real answer. May sound good, but sounds like a manufactured line. Wow no wrestling in olympics. Heck why dont they leave the o out of olympics. Or maybe the ice out of icecream.