Olympic Wrestling To Be Dropped From 2020

Wrestling is set to be dropped from the 2020 Olympic Games to make way for a new sport. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) recommended its dismissal after assessing the performance of all 26 sports at the London Games.

“The news from the IOC is extremely disappointing,” said British Wrestling chief executive Colin Nicholson. There is a slim chance wrestling may win a reprieve when the IOC meets in September to ratify its choice.

Modern pentathlon and taekwondo were thought to be the sports most at risk when the IOC committee met in Lausanne, Switzerland on Tuesday, but wrestling was the surprise choice. It will now compete with with seven other sports – baseball/softball, squash, karate, sport climbing, wakeboarding, wushu and roller sports – for a place in the 2020 Games.

“This is not the end of the process, this is purely a recommendation,” said IOC spokesman Mark Adams. “This is not about what’s wrong with wrestling but what is good for the Games.” It is unlikely wrestling will be voted back in so soon after being removed by the executive board, but Adams stressed: “Today’s decision is not final.”

Amateur wrestling’s world governing body, the International Federation of Associated Wrestling Styles (FILA), said it was “greatly astonished” by the decision.

A Fila statement said: “FILA will take all necessary steps to convince the executive committee and members of the IOC of this aberration of a decision against one of the founding sports of the ancient and modern Olympic Games.”

Wrestling, which combines freestyle and Greco-Roman events, was included in the inaugural modern Olympics in Athens in 1896.