What qualifies a sport to be good enough for the Olympics?- A look at Wrestling's removal

I’m not entirely sure that Pierre de Coubertin, founder of IOC, would approve of the recent developments in the Olympics. Dropping wrestling as event at the Olympics in 2020 seems counter-intuitive to the purpose with which Pierre help to start the Olympics back in 1886.

Pierre was a Frenchman. Take a look at this picture and you’ll see what I mean about him shaking his head at the removal of wrestling as a sport.

All those manly martial arts invented by different countries, and the French are credited with inventing the sublime art of running away. Pierre’s motive behind the creation of the Olympics was to get his fellow Frenchmen to man up – to put it in a nutshell. The defeat of France in the 1870-71 Franco-Prussian war had left the nation humiliated. According to Pierre, his country lost because of an effeminate, non-sporting, and excessively intellectual French population. He noticed how the elite schools in England stressed on sports and how that helped forge young men who helped the country become an elite superpower. With that view, the first Olympic games were held at Athens in 1896. It had 9 events with 11 countries participating in it. Wrestling was one of those events.

A sport removed

The priorities of the IOC are different from those of Pierre de Coubertin. They need to take into account a multitude of variables when it comes to deciding upon the inclusion/exclusion of a sport in the Olympics. They factor in the television ratings, ticket sales, global popularity and participation – a total of over three dozen factors are taken into account before a decision is made. The whole point behind the creation of the modern Olympics was to get people to man up. If you think about it, wrestling is one of the sports which has the highest level of testosterone among all the others. And now wrestling has been dropped as an Olympic sport. Granted that the purpose of the Olympics was wider than just making a nation faster, stronger and higher. It was developed with a view to use sports for individual development, promote international relations and provide a platform for the highest level of physical excellence. The idea of making the French more manly was but an impetus behind the Olympics.

The roster of sports in the Olympics is not constant. Looking back, sports like tug-of-war, polo, lacrosse, cricket and even croquet were a part of the Olympics at some time or the other. There have been 42 different sports in the Olympics at different times. The removal of wrestling is not really a drastic step. Baseball and softball were removed from the 2012 Olympics. And wrestling’s removal is not a permanent step either. It has now joined seven other sports which will apply for inclusion in the Olympics in 2020, for one solitary spot. It will compete with baseball and softball, karate, squash, roller sports, sport climbing, wakeboarding and wushu for that one spot. The decision will be made by the IOC executive board meeting in May at St. Petersburg, Russia. But the final voting will be done in the general assembly of the IOC in September at Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Generally sports are excluded because of lack of popularity, non-compliance with the World Anti-Doping Board, Olympic Charter or absence of appropriate governing body. The system is forward-looking and flexible within its parameters. Back in the beginning, ice skating was a part of the Olympics, in the 1908 Olympic Games. The IOC even included ice skating and ice hockey in the 1912 Olympics as exhibition sports. It wasn’t until 1924 that the winter Olympics were inaugurated and the ice sports were given their due.

So how does a sport become an Olympic sport?

For a sport to be included in the summer Olympics, it must be widely practised by men in at least 75 countries over 4 continents and by women in at least 40 countries over 3 continents. Before a sport is added, it must first become a demonstration sport at the Olympics. The IOC doesn’t randomly decide to add/remove sports from the Olympics. Every Olympic game must have at least 25 of the following sports. Listed in brackets are the names of the governing bodies of these sports.

- Athletics (IAAF)- Rowing (FISA)- Badminton (BWF)- Baseball (IBAF)- Basketball (FIBA)- Boxing (AIBA)- Canoe (ICF)- Cycling Union (UCI)- Equestrian (FEI)- Fencing (FIE)- Football (FIFA)- Gymnastics (FIG)- Weightlifting (IWF)- Handball (IHF)- Hockey (FIH)- Judo (IJF)- Wrestling (FILA)- Swimming (FINA)- Modern Pentathlon (UIPM)- Softball (ISF)- Taekwondo (WTF)- Tennis (ITF)- Table Tennis (ITTF)- Shooting Sport (ISSF)- Archery (WA)- Triathlon (ITU)- Sailing (ISAF)- Volleyball (FIVB)

Excluded sports do make comebacks, just as new sports make new appearances. The 2016 Olympics will see the inclusion of golf and rugby in the Olympics. The only constants in the Olympic sports have been athletics, cycling, fencing and gymnastics. For the Olympics, the IOC has set a cap limit of 28 sports, 300 events, and 10,000 athletes for the summer Olympics. An event is a part of a sport; for instance, swimming has different strokes and athletics has different disciplines under them. These sub-disciplines under the sports are known as events. Recently, a new system has been introduced which consists of 25 core sports with three floating sports. Every sport is up for review after each Olympics and addition and removal of a sport can be done by a simple majority vote.

Who stands to lose from wrestling’s exclusion?

“This will be a huge blow to our country’s sports,” Mohammad Ali-Abadi, the head of the Iranian national Olympic committee. “Wrestling is one of our country’s most popular and dominant sports.” Iran was the 17th best nation in the London Olympics thanks to their six medals in wrestling. They won 12 medals in total this time. Till date, Iran has won 60 medals at the Olympics and 38 of them have come from wrestling. Wrestling has accounted for 8 of the 15 gold medals of Iran. As a nation, they are more indignant than most about the removal of wrestling from the Olympics. A conspiracy theorist could connect dots with the oil feud and the sometimes volatile political climate of Iran.

India has a rich and storied history in wrestling, going back to the days of Mahabharata when Bheem and Duryodhan were ripping each other’s thighs apart. More recently, of the 26 medals which India has won, 4 have come in wrestling. Sushil Kumar won silver in the 2012 London Games. Yogeshwar Dutt won bronze in the same year. In 2008 Beijing, Sushil Kumar won bronze. And way back in 1952 Helinski, Khashaba Dadasaheb Jadhav won bronze. Jadhav was a supreme wrestler who could have won more medals if he had received the required support.

When someone says that wrestling has been dropped as an Olympic sport, it is not a sign for all wrestling federations across the world to pack their bags and call it quits. They just need to popularize the sport more and campaign to include it once again. Wrestling is one of the 28 disciplines of which 25 must be included in all Olympics; the odds aren’t stacked against it making a comeback. So it’s not completely a doomsday scenario. Those who stand to lose the most are wrestlers like Sushil Kumar who are in their prime and may have to miss out on wrestling at the 2016 Olympics. The possibility of including wrestling in the Olympics after the 2016 and 2020 Games seems to soften the blow of its removal. It’s only a couple of years, right? But it’s a lifetime to an athlete, who stands to lose the most – an opportunity to compete and display his skills at the highest level.