Forget the lofty Olympic motto of higher, faster, stronger. How about higher TV ratings, faster flow of dollars and stronger sponsorship deals?
The news that broke Tuesday that the executive board of the International Olympic Committee intends to eliminate wrestling from the Olympics in 2020 hit many people around the world like an unanticipated gut wrench.
Of all the sports to consider dropping, there are so many reasons why wrestling should not be one of them. First of all, wrestling鈥檚 ancient connection to the Olympic Games should afford it a special place in the world鈥檚 greatest sporting event.
By many accounts, wrestling made its Olympic debut along with boxing in 708 BC, joining a simple running race in an arena in Olympia, Greece, the birthplace of the ancient games. When the modern Olympic Games were resurrected in 1896 by Pierre de Coubertin, wrestling was one of the original sports and has been part of the Games ever since.
Now it must fight for its life to not be cut, along with other sports vying to be included in the Olympics, like baseball, softball, squash, karate, wushu (kung fu), wakeboarding, roller sports and sport climbing.
But it鈥檚 actually more basic than that. It鈥檚 safe to say that long before recorded history, or before Plato wrestled with more than just philosophical questions, but young bodies as well, there was wrestling. Wrestling is one of those natural, uncontrived sports, like seeing who runs the fastest, throws a spear the furthest and jumps the highest. It is the antithesis of rhythmic gymnastics or synchronized swimming, as much as many of us love those judged, subjective, athletic pursuits.
Wrestling is a sport accessible to all, as you don鈥檛 need thousands of dollars worth of gear or multimillion-dollar venues to participate. It is, in short, a battle of strength and skill, not pocketbook.
Luckily, Wrestling sa国际传媒 president Don Ryan is not alone when he says: 鈥淲e have to roll up our sleeves and fight.鈥�
The International Federation of Associated Wrestling Styles, known by the French acronym FILA, will lobby IOC executives in St. Petersburg, Russia, in May, and then again in Buenos Aires in September, when a final decision is expected to be made.
Apparently, the IOC鈥檚 executive board 鈥� made up of many aristocrats 鈥� says wrestling doesn鈥檛 attract enough sponsors or television viewers.
The Olympic ideal is supposed to be about so much more than money and sponsorships.
It is in part an ideal and an all-too-brief time when the world really seems to come together, toss aside its worries and hatreds and focuses its attention on friendship, sportsmanship and the pursuit of excellence by youth from virtually every country.
It has been stopped by great wars, marred by boycotts and muddied by cheating, since sponsorships in the flashier sports mean millions of dollars are up for grabs. And yet wrestling endures.
No wrestler anticipates great riches or even much glory. Carol Huynh of Hazelton won gold in Beijing in 2008 in women鈥檚 freestyle wrestling and she has not been enriched 鈥� other than in an intrinsic way 鈥� knowing that through striving to be the best she could be, she became the best in the world. Nor does she get mobbed for autographs when she goes to the mall.
That is, or at least should be, the very essence of the Olympic ideal.
That riches don鈥檛 await wrestling medallists means in many ways, it is a keeper of what the Olympics are supposed to be all about.
Wrestling may not help Olympians鈥� bank accounts or Olympic coffers grow faster and stronger, but it does help illustrate the purer and higher standard that the Olympics once stood for. That鈥檚 why wrestling must remain an Olympic sport.
