(ATR) IOC sources tell Around the Rings that five sports were part of discussions to cut the Olympic program to a core of 25, with wrestling losing out to modern pentathlon in a fourth round of voting.
The IOC Executive Board made a surprise decision Tuesday when it dropped wrestling from a group that ATRis told included canoe, hockey, taekwondo and modern pentathlon.
The International Wrestling Federation, FILA, expressed deep disappointment with the decision. In a statement posted on its website, FILA said it would use "all necessary measures to convince the Executive Committee and the IOC members that this decision is nonsense".
FILA noted that it had 180 member federations, "offering the unique possibility of representation of athletes in the Olympics and contributing to its universality."
The FILA Bureau is to meet in Phuket, Thailand on Feb. 16 - 17 to discuss the IOC decision and make plans to present to the IOC Executive Board in St. Petersburg in May.
EB members voted in a close, secret ballot before the axe fell on wrestling. The sport will now join seven others vying for a spot on the 2020 Olympics program. Baseball/softball, karate, roller sports, sport climbing, squash, wakeboard and wushu are the contenders.
EB members will meet during SportAccord to decide which sport to add to the 2020 Olympic program. The two EB recommendations are then subject to a vote at the IOC Session in Buenos Aires in September.
Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr. was clearly delighted predictions modern pentathlon would be dropped failed to materialize in today’s vote.
"I am very, very happy from all points of view," he told ATR, praising the IOC Program Commission for conducting a thorough evaluation process of the 26 London Olympic sports over the past year.
"As a vice president of modern pentathlon I am relieved that my colleagues finally decided that it should be proposed to the Session [in September] to remain in the core concept."
He added: "We have history on our side and a number of very good things for our sport such as the way it educates athletes."
Backed by founder of the modern Olympics Pierre de Coubertin, modern pentathlon’s history and recent attempts to revamp the sport for the Rio 2016 Olympics provided just enough support to maintain its Olympic status.
Modern Pentathlon Relieved
UIPM president Klaus Schormann told ATR by phone from Darmstadt, Germany that today’s decision only gives him more motivation to deliver a true "pentathlon stadium" for Rio – but that laser pistols, a combined running/shooting finale and other recent changes are not kneejerk reactions to the state of his sport.
"We are not reacting," he said, stressing that each tweak was tested at other competitions first, including the 2010 Youth Olympic Games in Singapore.
"We are acting over many many years, and we will continue now after this decision strongly motivated to go ahead with all our steps."
The IOC program commission’s report to the EB evaluated the 26 London 2012 sports on 39 criteria.
IOC communications director Mark Adams declined to single out any factors that influenced the EB decision. He claimed the commission’s "gathering of intelligence" had been "extremely comprehensive" and a valuableresource for EB members.
"It is not an easy decision. It’s not black and white. What you are looking at is how to build a program and allow room potentially for renewal of the program for 2020," he told a press conference at the Lausanne Palace Hotel.
"It is not case of what is wrong with wrestling but what’s right for the 2020 Games," he said.
Uphill Battle for Wrestling
The IOC was keen to emphasize that all was not lost for wrestling. However, the sport faces an uphill battle to convince the full IOC membership at the Buenos Aires Session that it deserves to be spared the guillotine.
Asked by a journalist if the decision to drop wrestling increased the chances of wushu or karate joining the Games program, Addams said: "I think it is a little premature to be saying that."
One IOC source told ATR that wrestling’s downfall was partly down to a lack of lobbying muscle compared to the other at-risk sports.
But he suggested that wrestling, one of the iconic images of the ancient Games, still had a chance of beating off competition fromthe seven sports bidding for a 2020 berth. With its strong grassroots support and a strong PR campaign behind it, the sport had the potential to cling on to its cherished Olympic status.
IOC member Willi Kaltschmitt told ATR that Tuesday’s decision "opened the door for another sport to come in and that is a good thing."
IOC sports director Christophe Dubi denied that wrestling’s demise was triggered by a lack of development and innovations in its presentation in recent years
"If you take wrestling from Beijing to London they have introduced the video refereeing for example which was really successful in London," he said.
"I would say that they have made developments."
"We have a core that will be proposed to the Session so it’s a really good thing. The work that has been done is very extensive, very detailed.
"It shows for each federation where they will have to develop in the future and each of them will have to make their judgements. What we have now is a good platform for 2020."
Tuesday’s sports vote paves the way for an eight-sport battle to join the 2020 Games.
Dubi told ATR that the seven candidates for the 2020 Olympics had already done a good job in presenting their cases to the program commission.
The IOC sports director claimed that wrestling had its work cut out to convince the IOC EB that the sport still had something to offer the Olympics.
"Wrestling will have to prepare itself for the Executive Board in the best way they can and play their arguments… to put together the best value proposition that they can," Dubi said.
When asked if wrestling’s rejection might be advantageous to some of the sports seeking Olympic inclusion Dubi said:"It’s a complex property to say that one decision has an influence on the next one. You have to always consider it as a whole. And that is the difficulty of the exercise. I wouldn’t feel that taking out one sport has an influence on the next steps," he added.
Reported by Mark Bisson.
20 Years at #1: Your best source of news about the Olympics is AroundTheRings.com, for subscribers only.
Últimas Noticias
Utah’s Olympic venues an integral part of the equation as Salt Lake City seeks a Winter Games encore
Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation chief of sport development Luke Bodensteiner says there is a “real urgency to make this happen in 2030”. He discusses the mission of the non-profit organization, the legacy from the 2002 Winter Games and future ambitions.
IOC president tells Olympic Movement “we will again have safe and secure Olympic Games” in Beijing
Thomas Bach, in an open letter on Friday, also thanked stakeholders for their “unprecedented” efforts to make Tokyo 2020 a success despite the pandemic.
Boxing’s place in the Olympics remains in peril as IOC still unhappy with the state of AIBA’s reform efforts
The IOC says issues concerning governance, finance, and refereeing and judging must be sorted out to its satisfaction. AIBA says it’s confident that will happen and the federation will be reinstated.
IOC president details Olympic community efforts to get Afghans out of danger after Taliban return to power
Thomas Bach says the Afghanistan NOC remains under IOC recognition, noting that the current leadership was democratically elected in 2019. But he says the IOC will be monitoring what happens in the future. The story had been revealed on August 31 in an article by Miguel Hernandez in Around the Rings
North Korea suspended by IOC for failing to participate in Tokyo though its athletes could still take part in Beijing 2022
Playbooks for Beijing 2022 will ”most likely” be released in October, according to IOC President Thomas Bach.
