Wrestling's triumph in the vote follows a number of sweeping reforms made following its exclusion, including overhauling its rules, administration, gender equality and operations.
September 8, 2013
Wrestling voted back into the Olympics.
"The sport - one of the original disciplines at the Ancient Olympics - had been due to end its Olympic participation at Rio 2016 following its dismissal by the IOC earlier this year."
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6 comments:
It would have been absurd to keep such an ancient sport as wrestling out of the Olympics.
Despite its huge popularity, football is unsuited for the Olympics because teams can compete only once a week. Given the 2-week period of the Olympics there could be only eight teams competing.
Peter
Gender equality? Really? Women are going to be competing against men, head-to-head, strength against strength, talent against talent?
No? Oh, they mean the feminist definition of equality (token inclusion of inferior athletes in order to make an artificial show of make-believe comparability), not "equality" equality.
The remark about gender equality brings to mind the debate about shooting sports in the Olympics. In general, women and men can shoot equally as well. Shooting sports are typically co-ed in the United States. Although Olympic shooting was once a gender-neutral sport, the Olympics have segregated shooting competitions by gender since 1984. On the one hand, the existence of separate teams increases the number of female shooters in competition, but on the other hand, women are unable to compete as true equals against men in a sport where respective skills would support such a competition. More background is available at the US shooting sports page and at the WSJ.
Wrestling is a wonderful sport. It clarifies the value of winnig against another's will one against one. and one will lose.
Team sports teach team work. Wrestling teaches winning.
As the father of a son and two daughters who have wrestled competitively in high school, I'm pleased by this decision. Wrestling was the original Olympic sport. Wrestlers listen politely as football players talk about "contact sports," by which they mean "contact for about 10 seconds out of every three minutes." Wrestlers, of course, are typically in violent contact from the moment the whistle blows until someone's pinned, goes out of bounds, or the period expires. Wrestling is as pure and intense a one-on-one competition as any sport is capable of presenting. It should not only be an Olympic sport, but a "core" sport, for both men and women.
I want jousting.
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