DrJay wrote:Google "sport climbing competition" or "sport climbing world cup" or such and you can find videos.
I think wrestling is a great sport, one of my XC teammates was a wrestler first, runner second, and I thought of going out for it. Man those guys work HARD in practice. Bobby said hands down wrestling practice was harder than any XC practice he ever did, but also that an XC race was harder than a wrestling match. Rudy Chapa was a wrestler who went out for XC to get fit.
Sad to see it potentially out of the Olympics. Ridiculous, absurd. If I had to rank sports in order of "Olympicness" (whatever the hell I mean by that) I'd go something like:
1. Track and field 2. Swimming 3. Gymnastics 4. Wrestling 5. Basketball 6. Weightlifting 7. Boxing 8. Volleyball etc
Dr. Jay...very sad.... a very smart fellow and yet under the illusion that the Olympics are about sport. I think if the IOC could find a way to do away with those pesky athletes altogether they would do so in a minute. But unfortunately like the reality show it is now, the performers are necessary so they stay.
Maybe TAFNEWS can chase it's infamous "What if They Gave a Track Meet and Nobody Came?" cover story (May 1991) with a "What if They Held an Olympics Without Track and Field?" cover story. Just sayin'.....
DrJay wrote:Maybe TAFNEWS can chase it's infamous "What if They Gave a Track Meet and Nobody Came?" cover story (May 1991) with a "What if They Held an Olympics Without Track and Field?" cover story. Just sayin'.....
Exactly. The IOC, of course, would still insist on an Olympic Stadium from the hosts, after all the Opening and Closing Ceremonies are huge and very popular. And without a track they could fit even more seats in. I think it is only a matter of time, but not while Bolt is still going strong, before Track gets the hook...
eldanielfire wrote:Those complaining about dancing horses should really understand equestarian sports has as much right o the Olympics as Wresting, but date back to the acient greek games and start of the modern games which in my opinion should mean they should be untouchable at the Olympics.
If they're going to touch the historical untouchables, equestrian should be removed long before wrestling.
This is a kick in the balls for me. In addition to going to the last 2 trials in Eugene, I also went to the past 2 US wrestling trials as well as multiple wrestling sessions at the Olympics. Those guys (and ladies) work their asses off for way less glory than even track athletes get. There is barely any funding and only one athlete gets to represent the country, and that's only if they manage to get the weight class qualified to begin with. How the F do badminton, pentathlon, taekwondo, triathlon, table tennis, and judo make it higher up on the food chain? Unbelievable.
Weight lifting and archery don't suffer from the same problem that wrestling does. Wrestling has 10 weight classes each in Greco-Roman and Freestyle for men, but only four Freestyle weight classes (and no Greco-Roman) for women. (Of course, far more men participate in competitive wrestling than women.) IOC does not want a sport that is so male-dominated.
Weigh lifting has eight classes for men and seven for women. Archery has the same number of events for men and women.
just a side note there are 7 weight classes in mens freestyle in the olympics, 7 for greco (greco has men only) and 4 for womens freestyle.
The I.O.C. is quick to take action against any who would dare to use the word Olympics, or the five ring symbol commercially without payment of a fee. I would suggest that any Olympics without the original Olympic sports of Track and Field or Wrestling is a misappropriation of the name "Olympics."
Powell wrote:Be honest... how many of you lamenting wrestling's fate actually watched any wrestling during the last OG?
I watched, like, no wrestling, but I also watched far less T&F than I'd like. Life is busy. That said, one can still have immense respect for the sport and its athletes and think it a travesty that it may be eliminated from the OG. I also watched no synchronized diving nor rhythmic gymastics, but think those are silly sports that should get the ax.
26mi235 wrote:I suspect that Wrestling has been tagged because of PEDs issues, and it gives the IOC the opportunity to hold a dagger over the heads of the sporting bodies to clean up more than was been the case a bit back.
That's not the reason. Wrestling has had only 8 PED +'s in the Olympics over the years - far less than weightlifting, athletics. There was only 1 wrestling + in London 2012. Only Sydney, with 3, ever had more than 1 doping + at a single Olympics.
Powell wrote:Be honest... how many of you lamenting wrestling's fate actually watched any wrestling during the last OG?
I watched, like, no wrestling, but I also watched far less T&F than I'd like. Life is busy. That said, one can still have immense respect for the sport and its athletes and think it a travesty that it may be eliminated from the OG. I also watched no synchronized diving nor rhythmic gymastics, but think those are silly sports that should get the ax.
In the IOC world there are three classes of what the list members are calling sports - sports, disciplines, and events. Rhythmic gymnastics is only a discipline within the sport of gymnastics, so there is no chance that would axed. There are several events within the discipline of rhythmic gymnastics. Synchronized diving is only an event within the discipline of diving. Swimming, diving, synchronized swimming, and water polo are not sports to the IOC, but disciplines within the sport of aquatics. I know that sounds strange if you don't deal with this a lot, but that's what they call it.
If I could ax one event it would be equestrian dressage - silly spectacle for rich people in my opinion.
Ancient Olympics had equestrian events, as somebody else on the board said, but it was only chariot racing, and nothing like modern equestrian events. More like trotters and pacers.
HopStepJump wrote: How the F do badminton, pentathlon, taekwondo, triathlon, table tennis, and judo make it higher up on the food chain? Unbelievable.
True that!! Table tennis only has 300 million players worldwide, Badminton more than 20 million playing worldwide and that is one hell of a lot more than wrestlers worldwide. But WTF it's only Asians who play those games, and so I guess rice eaters are not counted in your food chain
However,in saying that, it is a disgrace that IOC corruption sees wrestling being dropped. But when you have the horsey riding set of royal bludgers and European old wealth dominating the IOC, the spoiled pampered elite will never let the horses get kicked out of the Olympics.
Tuariki wrote:Table tennis only has 300 million players worldwide, Badminton more than 20 million playing worldwide and that is one hell of a lot more than wrestlers worldwide. But WTF it's only Asians who play those games, and so I guess rice eaters are not counted in your food chain.
Modern pentathlon (30,000) is the summer Olympic sports with the smallest number of participants, if I am not mistaken. However, I have read over 99% of wrestlers worldwide (about 1 million) are men. That leaves about 1,000 women wrestling worldwide. Is that true?
TN1965 wrote:Modern pentathlon (30,000) is the summer Olympic sports with the smallest number of participants, if I am not mistaken. However, I have read over 99% of wrestlers worldwide (about 1 million) are men. That leaves about 1,000 women wrestling worldwide. Is that true?
Powell wrote:Be honest... how many of you lamenting wrestling's fate actually watched any wrestling during the last OG?
i watched it, i wrestled in college at oklahoma state then transferred to cal state bakerfield, my teammate at oklahoma state john smith won the 1988 and 1992 olympics and coached the 2012 olympic team, dont know any of the current wrestlers on the olympic team personally, but i like watching amateur wrestling (i like watching the fake pro wrestling also) i like watching all forms of wrestling freestyle, greco, folkstyle which is the NCAA style.
I watch Olympic wrestling because Okla State is usually/always represented on the team. I knew some of the old time wrestlers (1948-52-56) and follow OSU wrestling fortune
But, the reason wrestling should be retained in the Olympic is because it was one of the original sports and is still a principal sport in many nations who would otherwise have little chance to be competitive at the top level.
Allthough gymnastics is very popular and the athletes are undeniably skilled, I look askance at any sport that features subjective scoring... ditto diving, and there is no justification at all for ribbon twirling..
Tuariki wrote:Table tennis only has 300 million players worldwide, Badminton more than 20 million playing worldwide and that is one hell of a lot more than wrestlers worldwide. But WTF it's only Asians who play those games, and so I guess rice eaters are not counted in your food chain.
Modern pentathlon (30,000) is the summer Olympic sports with the smallest number of participants, if I am not mistaken. However, I have read over 99% of wrestlers worldwide (about 1 million) are men. That leaves about 1,000 women wrestling worldwide. Is that true?
I had read a few years ago that Modern Pentathlon had considered replacing equestrian with mountain biking as one of its five events. Which would basically make it Tri-athlon plus shooting and fencing. This would open it up to the masses. It would have made sense to me for the IOC to mandate this and that the two federations merge into one federation for multi-sport. That would reduce the number of Olympic sports by one - if not the number of athletes.
As for wrestling, I am shocked. i figured that Greco-ROman wrestling might be in jeopardy but not the freestyle version which is more universal.
I sort of like the Modern Pentathlon, partly because when I was teaching at Trinity in San Antonio I was near where they were doing training and was running with some of the athletes occasionally.
DrJay wrote: I also watched no synchronized diving nor rhythmic gymastics, but think those are silly sports that should get the ax.
Silly Sport? I wouldn't even go that far. More like Ice Capades. Complete nonsense, but really what the IOC is all about.
Agree entirely those warrant the ax - but I think that technically those are not sports to the IOC and thus were not candidates for elimination in this vote. Aren't synch diving and rhythmic gymnastics events within the sports of swimming and gymnastics, respectively? They had the wisdom to align under the governance of two really popular sport federations.
Tuariki wrote:Table tennis only has 300 million players worldwide, Badminton more than 20 million playing worldwide and that is one hell of a lot more than wrestlers worldwide. But WTF it's only Asians who play those games, and so I guess rice eaters are not counted in your food chain
My wife happens to be one of your Chinese "rice eaters". I'm also well aware of the popularity of table tennis in China, so why don't you just stop making up shit.
As far as your point goes, should popular sports such as artistic gymnastics and diving also be on the chopping block because of their lower world-wide participancy? Some sports are harder to master than others and some do not lend themselves easily to recreational opportunities. I'm sure there are people in the 80s who can play table tennis, but how many people in their 50s want to go at it hard with someone else on the mat for several minutes?
So, contrary to your assertion of soft racism as being the driving factor for my opinion, here's what I am actually basing it on.
Wrestling- Olympic roots back to the ancient Greeks Part of every Olympics games except 1900 Referenced in the Olympic hymn, FFS! 29 NOCs won medals in 2012, 27 in 2008, 28 in 2004 In its Olympic history, 1078 total medals won by 54 different nations Recommended IOC venue size- 8000 seats
Badminton- In the Olympics since 2000 In its history, 91 total medals won by 10 NOCs (88% by eastern Asian nations, rest by Europe and one by India)) Infamously had players purposely tanking matches in 2012 for a better seed in the knockout rounds Recommended IOC venue size- 5000 seats
Table Tennis- In the olympcs since 1992 88 total medals won by 12 NOCs (85% by eastern Asian nations, rest by Europe) 24 out of 28 gold medals won by a single nation- China (3 of the 4 non-Chinese golds won before 1996) Recommended IOC venue size- 5000 seats
Softball and baseball got the axe in large part because they weren't globally competitive. I don't see that much of a difference here with table tennis or badminton. I also wouldn't recommend cutting either sport, but I would certainly chop them before wrestling.
Nintendo's "Wii Sports" is the top selling and most popular video game of all time, having sold a whopping 81 million games worldwide to date.. That would make more players worldwide than all but about the top 5 or 6 most popular olympic sports.. I'm sure it's only a matter of time before the IOC realizes the potential...
HopStepJump wrote:Softball and baseball got the axe in large part because they weren't globally competitive. I don't see that much of a difference here with table tennis or badminton. I also wouldn't recommend cutting either sport, but I would certainly chop them before wrestling.
There's a big difference here between softball/baseball and table tennis/badminton. Softball especially and baseball, to a degree, are dominated by the United States. Table tennis and badminton mostly dominated by China and a few other Asian nations (more in badminton). In the current climate in the IOC, with their USA-animus, softball/baseball had little chance. Note that the IOC has also made noises about eliminating women's ice hockey because it is completely dominated by the USA and Canada. This would not occur if it was dominated by European nations, I assure you.
Cutting number of events in rowing, canoeing, and kayaking. Same with cycling and BMX.
Number of athletes from each country could be cut down. T&F could be limited to two athletes per event per country like swimming. Cut tennis entry to two per country. Max two athletes per event per country in Badminton and table tennis. Ditto for cycling, mountain bike, and BMX.
Brian wrote:Absolute bullshit. The sport is elemental. Long before I ever ran an organized race I was wrestling with other 4-year-old boys on the playground. .
Amen... it is a universal sport along with atheltics and swimming... they are part of our everyday life. The IOC should add tag.
26mi235 wrote:I sort of like the Modern Pentathlon, partly because when I was teaching at Trinity in San Antonio I was near where they were doing training and was running with some of the athletes occasionally.
One thing I like about Modern Pentatlon is that the final cross country race is handicapped by the points totals leading up to it. The point leaders going into the race get a head start and whoever crosses the finish line first is the actual gold medalist unlike in the decathlon.
