It has been part of the Olympics since 1896. And it is going away?

http://olympictalk.nbcsports.com/2013/02/12/ioc-drops-wrestling-from-2020-olympics/related/

They keep badminton and rhythmic gymnastics? Synchronized swimming?

Holy Batman what a dumb decision.

They are also adding golf. Olympic sports should be the highest level of the sport. Every golfer would trade an Olympic gold for a green jacket at the masters. Ridiculous

You said "sport". Golf is a game. Wrestling is a sport.

Don't really know what Rhythmic Gymnastics is. Probably belongs in a Brittney Spears Concert.

The press release says:

However, the decision isn’t quite final. Wrestling, which includes both Greco-Roman and freestyle disciplines, will now be thrown in against the other seven sports vying for a single spot in the 2020 Games schedule: baseball/softball, squash, wushu, roller sports, karate, sport climbing, and wakeboarding. A final vote will happen among the full IOC leadership at a meeting in Buenos Aires this September.

So there is still some hope, but I'm very concerned.

Rhythmic gymnastics violates my basic rules of what should be an Olympic sport. Unfortunately they never consult me.

No sport should have more than two of the below:

1. judged scoring
2. music
3. costumes
4. accessories

Rhythmic gymnastics has all four. Synchronized swimming has #1, #2, and #3.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YZvMe8z7Ho

The IOC.

Anyone know why there is a hard cap on the number of Olympic sports at 25? Why can't they have baseball/softball and wrestling?

Events already overlap so it's not like adding one more would ruin schedules

spice - I like your list of 4 issues.
badmitten(spelling?) is quite huge in Asia, so it's not going anywhere.
race walking is the one I can't see keeping, yet it stays.
they've had softball before and then killed it.
I also agree with the Olympic should be highest (or at least very high) on the sport's achievement. Tennis is in Olympics & any individual would rather win one of several other events before the Olympics.

chico - racewalking is part of "athletics," so it's not viewed as its own Olympic sport. It's grouped with track, field, and marathon.

That being said, I don't think that the perceived "silliness" of a sport, like racewalking, or rhythmic gymnastics, in the United States should determine its presence or not in the Games. I would never belittle somebody else's passion like that, but that's just me.

The standards should be more along the lines of: organization, global participation levels, global parity, participation of the sport's top athletes, the status of the Olympics within a sports hierarchy...those are the types of standards I'd like to see applied.

That's why I had no problem with baseball being cut. It didn't meet many of those important criteria. That's why I don't think golf should be added, as I don't think the golf community will really embrace the Olympics.

That's just my .02. Will respect anyone else's opinion, though, on a subject like this.

I 100% agree: why, exactly, did wrestling need to be cut? What problem were they having that this solved?

Agblastoff - I agree the USA's preferences should not carry more weight than "rest of world."

But if someone were to go back in history and look at the roots of the Olympics, I think we'd see wrestling and nothing as abominable as rhythmic gymnastics. Badminton is relatively new too - 1992. And trampoline was added in 2000.

I don't think baseball or softball belongs in the Olympics. The sport is basically Americas and Japan+Korea. Slow playing games, and huge facilities required.

quote:

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Anyone know why there is a hard cap on the number of Olympic sports at 25? Why can't they have baseball/softball and wrestling?

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The Olympics was getting too expensive for the host cities/countries. China was willing to spend a ton of money to show it is a major power, but everybody else was starting to worry about how much it costs to host the Olympics and is it really worth it for the cost. Limiting the number of sports was one way to decrease the rising cost of hosting the games.

Personally, if the scoring is subjective, it is not a sport. It is art (and I don't mean that with any disrespect). I think we hold too little respect for "art" and that is why everyone wants to make everything a "sport". We respect sports and athletes and everyone wants to be respected. Usually when I hear someone defending their discipline as a sport, they are upset because they feel the person who is saying it isn't a sport doesn't respect what they are doing. The implication is what they are doing is less because it isn't a sport. I think that is why you have so many people trying to call everything a sport.

There has actually been a movement to make these artistic events more like sports (with less subjective judging). I think this has actually been a negative. I think gymnastics and ice skating were better when they just had ten point or 6 point scales. I think all the required elements or degree of difficulty modifiers take the artistry away from the event. Is the judging more predictable, yes. But, it costs us some creativity, individuality, and flair.

But, clearly the powers that be disagree with me as we are moving in the opposite direction and call more and more things sports.


As for the Olympics, there is a long history of mixed sport and art competitions. Poetry and literature were a part of the ancient games. Even the modern games gave out medals for painting, sculpture, and other artistic endeavors all the way up until 1952. So, I think of the Olympics more as a series of competitions between nations and not solely a sporting event. My philosophy is not to worry if x Olympic event is really a sport and just enjoy it for what it is.

Total BS. Wrestling is one of the oldest sports in the world and an original event. I can't believe this ****!

Hey, it's not like the ancient Greeks were into wrestling or anything. No big loss.

Synchronized swimming, etc. should not be in the Olympics. Keep it simple world. Who is in charge? Nobody? Us. We let this crap happen when we look the other way.

Olympics is for speed, strength, endurance, in the way mankind functions. We run, we jump, we swim, we throw, we lift.