Wrestling Has One More Shot To Stay In The Olympics

The IOC surprisingly dropped wrestling from the list of core sports for the 2020 Games in February, forcing it to join seven other candidate sports that will battle it out for the one vacant spot when the IOC session votes in Buenos Aires in September.

The International Olympic Committee was mistaken to expect wrestling to go down without a fight.

Following its exclusion, wrestling made several changes. Women and athletes were included in decision-making and rules were tweaked. Matches used to be best of three two-minute rounds; now there are two three-minute periods with cumulative scoring.

The International Federation of wrestling alongside the federations for karate, roller sports, sport climbing, wakeboarding, wushu, baseball/softball, squash all made 30-minute presentations prior to voting in Saint Petersburg.

The IOC Executive Board then selected three sports by secret ballot with baseball/softball, squash and wrestling all being proposed for possible inclusion on the Olympic programme for the 2020 Games.

That vote will come at the 125th IOC Session in Buenos Aires in September with IOC president Jacques Rogge praising all eight sports involved but insisting baseball/softball, squash and wrestling were the most worthy.

Jacques Rogge

"The Executive Board received excellent presentations today from eight International Federations," said Rogge.

"It was never going to be an easy decision but I feel my colleagues on the Board made a good decision in selecting baseball/softball, squash and wrestling to be put forward in Buenos Aires.

"I wish the three shortlisted sports the best of luck in the run-up to the vote in September and would like to thank the other sports for their hard work and dedication."

Victorious representatives gave wonderfully cliche quotes afterword.

Lalovic and Rogge

"The match is not finished," said Nenad Lalovic, the recently elected president of the international wrestling federation, FILA. "We have a second match to fight. But be careful, we are good fighters."

Not to be outdone, World Baseball Softball Confederation co-president Don Porter said:

"We're in the seventh inning now."