Stephen Wilson of the Associated Press is reporting that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has made the shock decision to drop wrestling from the 2020 Olympics. The IOC dropped wrestling rather than the Modern Pentathlon, the sport most had expected to be dropped.
Wrestling will be able to apply for inclusion in 2020. It will be competing against a combined bid from baseball and softball, karate, squash, roller sports, sport climbing, wakeboarding and wushu for a single opening in the 2020 games.
The modern pentathlon combines fencing, horse riding, swimming, running and shooting. It was created early in the 20th Century and intended to test the athletic skills needed by a calvary officer at that time.
“This is a process of renewing and renovating the program for the Olympics,” IOC spokesman Mark Adams told the AP. “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.”
This is a shocking, and potentially devastating, blow to the sport of wrestling, widely regarded as the most ancient sport of human beings and part of the Olympics, both ancient and modern since the beginning.
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