The latest Olympic sport to get the axe is… wrestling?

Christopher Carr

Christopher Carr does stuff and writes about stuff.

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12 Responses

  1. Jaybird says:

    This is one of those things that makes no sense to me whatsoever… does wrestling always have poor ratings on the television, perhaps? Puts the fewest butts in seats?

    Did the former guy in charge of overseeing the wrestling portion of the olympics screw over the second cousin of the guy in charge of picking what is and what is not included?

    There has to be some explanation *SOMEWHERE* that would make everybody say “oh, yeah. That’s why. Idiots.”Report

    • Mark Thompson in reply to Jaybird says:

      It got most directly popped by Modern Pentathalpn, which approximately no one cares about. But Modern Pentathlon’s organization is run by the son of the previous IOC President; this person also happens to be on the current IOC board – purely on merit, of course.Report

  2. Stillwater says:

    that wrestling brought about its own demise by not being “viewer-friendly” enough,

    Unlike those pretty girls who jump around spinning long string from a stick.Report

  3. Jaybird says:

    (Oh, and I should point out, today is Wrestlemania XXIX. Aw. Yeah.)Report

  4. George Turner says:

    How can they include trampoline, a purely modern backyard activity, and not include the sports of hide-and-go-seek or dodge ball which have been played virtually since the dawn of civilization? Dodge ball is even mentioned in the Odyssey, for goodness sakes.Report

  5. Pinky says:

    I forgot to comment on this thread. (Actually, to ride my hobby horse.)

    At least some of the indoor events of the Summer Olympics should be transferred to the Winter. There’s no reason not to. The Winter games always have lower ratings and far fewer events. If they moved some of them to winter, they’d turn the Winter games into more of a prize and probably get more ratings.Report

  6. Jack says:

    What particularly bugs me about this decision is that for many of the retained sports the Olympics does not in anyway represent the pinnacle achievement, but is rather almost an afterthought. Golf, soccer, basketball, etec… so many of these have massively more important top tier events, whereas for wrestling the Olympics is The Event. I just can’t get my head around the fact that a sport that is economical (read: developing countries can partipate without massive investment), has broad participation across widely varying cultures, and is also one of the key feeder sports into one of the fastest growing professional competitions ever (Mixed Martial Arts) is put in the same category as wake boarding.Report