Olympics Drop Wrestling

[Irish#1]

The oldest sport known to man and the oldest Olympic sport gets dropped. This is mind blowing to me. All four of my sons wrestled with the last two starting at ages 6 & 8 and turned out good enough to get offers to wrestle in college. This sport teaches lessons pretty much every other sport can't.

Only you with no teammates to blame or count on. No timeouts to try and stop momentum. Six minutes of continuous motion and physical battle.

Any of you who wrestled know what I'm talking about. I hope they come to their senses in time.

 

[irishfanjho15]

This is pitiful. As a HS wrestler who played football and ran track in college, there is no sport that teaches you more about discipline and mental toughness than wrestling.

Two sad days in a row for Olympic sports.

 

[IrishJayhawk]

The oldest sport known to man and the oldest Olympic sport gets dropped. This is mind blowing to me. All four of my sons wrestled with the last two starting at ages 6 & 8 and turned out good enough to get offers to wrestle in college. This sport teaches lessons pretty much every other sport can't.

Only you with no teammates to blame or count on. No timeouts to try and stop momentum. Six minutes of continuous motion and physical battle.

Any of you who wrestled no what I'm talking about. I hope they come to their senses in time.

Yessir. This is a horrible decision.

 

[Redbar]

Complete Fail. Very sad day for a lot of kids, very sad day for the Olympics.

 

[Buster Bluth]

As someone whose cousin is on the short list of people who could be a Gold Medalist in wrestling in 2016, our family is pretty distraught over this.

For what it's worth, this isn't official yet and wrestling isn't 100% out.

 

[pumpdog20]

It's certainly not over and the big guns are on it. Gable, Smith, Sanderson, etc will not fail us. Plus throw in some pissed off Russians and Iranians, this will not last.

 

[GoIrish41]

You don't mess with that kind of tradition no matter how uneasy you get watching two intertwined men in tights rolling around on a mat together.

 

[In Lou I Trust]

Horrible, horrible day. As an Iowan and former wrestler who has a little brother falling in love with and excelling in wrestling this is disgusting. This sport, while not being a top watched Olympic sport, is too historic and important to the games to drop. In my mind it would be similar to getting rid of boxing; a sport as old as the games that has suffered from a lack of popularity in recent years. The fact that they are choosing to get rid of wrestling while keeping the pentathlon is mind blowing.

 

[NDPhilly]

Yet somehow rhythmic gymnastics and walking are still in it. SMH

 

[Junkhead]

I'm not really a wrestling fan, but I fail to see how getting rid of it helps the Olympics. I'm sure badminton and synchronized swimming are still around. Wrestling has been an Olympic staple from day 1.

 

[pumpdog20]

Signs of good news; FILA president just resigned.Fila President Martinetti Resigns | Take Back 2020 - Wrestling Experiences | Flowrestling

 

[GowerND11]

I never wrestled, and don't really follow it. But as everyone else has mention this is just plain stupid. The Olympics and wrestling should never be seperated. It freaking comes from the ORIGINAL games. Bring it back!

 

[Irishnuke]

They want you to think its gone. Then out of nowhere the Undertaker will appear and tombstone pile drive a badminton player and the crowd will go apeshit.

 

[Buster Bluth]

You don't mess with that kind of tradition no matter how uneasy you get watching two intertwined men in tights rolling around on a mat together.

Wrestle one time in your life and then come back and describe it like that.

 

[BobD]

It's amazing to me that anyone, even for a second, would consider dropping wrestling from the Olympics. Fail.

 

[IrishJayhawk]

Wrestle one time in your life and then come back and describe it like that.

You beat me to this comment.

 

[Bogtrotter07]

First of all guys, don't make joke posts on this thread. I am telling you, it is a good way to stir up some really bad blood.


Second, though I am not sure I would describe my wrestling career as stellar, growing up in Toledo, I had some unique opportunities in wrestling. The World Cup came to Toledo, every non Olympic year. And as a side Toledo St Johns Jesuit, my old high school sponsored the Catholic Invitational Tournament. Some great wrestlers took part in that tournament. My senior year, while I was on crutches anyway, the top three heavyweight placers were Bob Golic, Tom Couseneau, and Harold Smith, (the third place finisher won two Olympic golds.)

When I was a boy, at my coaches instruction I went to the old Field House at the University of Toledo. I was amazed; they just let me in. My amazement turned to awe, the Russians were out rolling around, warming up on the mat. They had their trainers, I mean KGB guards walking around the edge of the mat. (When those guys went anywhere to pay for a meal, they would pull out a roll of the old style greenbacks, large bills claiming to be backed up by silver; people clamored over them!)

Anyway I was obviously pie eyed, and someone asked me what I thought. I told them it was amazing, they were very good. The man that asked me what I thought said, "You think they are good, you should see us!" And then he invited me to the US practice.

Those were the days of Dan Gable, who was coach, Ben and John Peterson. I say this not to relate a bunch of funny stories, but to tell you that in my life I have known some really hard men, and those guys were as tough as any. It would be a shame to ruin all of that.

 

[Irishnuke]

Please don't come here and tell people not to make jokes in this thread. This isn't a serious issue. Nobody died or got molested or catfished. It's not defaming someone's religion. You didn't even create the thread.

 

[Bobias]

Please don't come here and tell people not to make jokes in this thread. This isn't a serious issue. Nobody died or got molested or catfished. It's not defaming someone's religion. You didn't even create the thread.

As crazy as it seems, wrestling is more important to some people than any religion.

 

[Buster Bluth]

As crazy as it seems, wrestling is more important to some people than any religion.

Religion being important is what is crazy.

 

[pumpdog20]

Please don't come here and tell people not to make jokes in this thread. This isn't a serious issue. Nobody died or got molested or catfished. It's not defaming someone's religion. You didn't even create the thread.

Died, molested, catfished: one of these is not nearly as bad as the others.

 

[In Lou I Trust]

Wrestling IS a religion in some parts.

 

[IrishJayhawk]

Please don't come here and tell people not to make jokes in this thread. This isn't a serious issue. Nobody died or got molested or catfished. It's not defaming someone's religion. You didn't even create the thread.

Feel free to make jokes. But if you're going to come in here with some weak homophobic quip, I think it merits a response.

All due respect to the poster, who I think is generally quite agreeable.

 

[pumpdog20]

Wrestling IS a religion in some parts.

With Mecca being CHA (I'll be there tonight).

 

[Buster Bluth]

What is CHA?

 

[Old Man Mike]

I used to "do" history for intellectual fun, and understanding of who we humans are. Wrestling, Javelin, Discus, Long Jump [using hand-held weights which when you discarded them were supposed to throw you out there farther], various runs, and poetry [no joke] were the original ancient staples of the Greek Olympic games. One of the first individually-named athletes in history, General Milon of Croton, was legend due to being, I believe, a three-time wrestling champion.

The idea that dropping wrestling could have even been uttered around an olympic planners table seems a circumstance coming from beyond Uranus. [semi-crudity intended].

 

[IrishJayhawk]

With Mecca being CHA (I'll be there tonight).

You're absolutely right.

I've seen lots of duals there, having grown up about an hour from Iowa City during the height of the Gable years (i.e., Brands brothers, Steiners, Reiland, etc. followed by McIlravy, McGinness, et al).

Thank goodness for McIlravy...the "boot scoot" was one of my most effective offensive moves on my feet.

 

[IrishJayhawk]

What is CHA?

Carver Hawkeye Arena

 

[Bogtrotter07]

Please don't come here and tell people not to make jokes in this thread. This isn't a serious issue. Nobody died or got molested or catfished. It's not defaming someone's religion. You didn't even create the thread.

I issued my first three sentences as a conditional statement. You are the only one who took it badly. The idea is to eliminate bad blood not create it. The statement was designed to be clear and sharp, because anybody that didn't understand the upset that went into this thread and instead acknowledged their own homophobia with any number of comments including "guys in tights", (wrestling gear since the 60's has been a singlet), probably wasn't couth enough to understand anything more subtle. My apologies for offending you though.

 

[IrishSteelhead]

Longtime high school wrestling coach here, and all I can say is this hopefully won't stick, and it's being eliminated for all the wrong reasons.

Wrestling is the ultimate equalizer, and truest sport of anything out there. You need absolutely no equipment or special facilities to wrestle, and ANYONE in the world ANYWHERE can participate, since money is a non-factor.

I have always pushed for the rest of the world to embrace folkstyle, but at this point GR and FS is better than nothing, and ribbon dancing is worse than nothing.......