Reaction from Buenos Aires on Sunday, 8 September, after wrestling reclaimed its place on the Olympic programme.
Nenad Lalovic, FILA President (on his feelings after wrestling retained its Olympic spot): “A very old sport has to be re-set from time to time. And that means that this is a good experience for everybody to keep their sport updated, to keep our Olympic movement strong. The sport must be strong and updated, interesting and a lot of spectators.”
Don Porter, World Baseball And Softball Confederation Co-President (emotional about letting down children who write to him wanting baseball and softball in the Olympics): “You know, I see those letters in my sleep and I keep them on my desk so it reminds me. You know, there’s only so much when I start going back and thinking about the letters..and it’s not only kids, it’s the parents and others all over the world. And I feel I’ve let them down.”
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Richard Pound, Canadian IOC Member (criticizing the IOC process that kept wrestling in the Olympic program): “The result is we are back where we started and they’ve spent a lot of time and energy, emotional or otherwise in a process that was pretty well doomed. This doesn’t happen in the IOC too often, but that vote is to tell the Executive Committee, you made a mess of this and we’re going to fix the mess and we’ve got to figure out another way forward.”
