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Olympics drops Khusti


diga

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We may need to revise our medal projections for 2020

IOC leaders dropped wrestling from the program for the 2020 Olympics today, an official familiar with the decision told The Associated Press. In a surprise move, the IOC executive board decided to retain modern pentathlon -- the sport considered most at risk -- and remove wrestling instead, the official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the decision hadn't been announced yet. The IOC board acted after reviewing the 26 sports on the current Olympic program. Eliminating one sport allows the International Olympic Committee to add a new sport to the program later this year. Wrestling combines freestyle and Greco-Roman disciplines. It had 11 medal events in freestyle and seven in Greco-Roman at last year's London Olympics. Wrestling will now join seven other sports in applying for inclusion in 2020. The others are a combined bid from baseball and softball, karate, squash, roller sports, sport climbing, wakeboarding and wushu. They will be vying for a single opening in 2020. The IOC executive board will meet in May in St. Petersburg, Russia, to decide which sport or sports to propose for 2020 inclusion. The final vote will be made at the IOC general assembly in September in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The last sports removed from the Olympics were baseball and softball, voted out by the IOC in 2005 and off the program since the 2008 Beijing Games. Golf and rugby will be joining the program at the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro. The IOC program commission report analyzed more than three dozen criteria, including television ratings, ticket sales, anti-doping policy and global participation and popularity. With no official rankings or recommendations contained in the report, the final decision by the 15-member board was also subject to political, emotional and sentimental factors. Previously considered under the closest scrutiny was modern pentathlon, which has been on the Olympic program since the 1912 Stockholm Games. It was created by French baron Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympic movement. Modern pentathlon combines fencing, horse riding, swimming, running and shooting -- the five skills required of a 19th century cavalry officer. The sport's governing body, the UIPM, has been lobbying hard to protect its Olympic status, and the efforts apparently paid off. UIPM President Klaus Schormann had considered traveling from Germany to Lausanne for the decision, but decided to stay away. "The Olympic movement always needs history," Schormann told the AP ahead of the IOC decision. "You cannot just say we look only at the future. You can have a future when you are stable on the basic part of history. We are continuing to develop, to renovate, to be innovative and creative. We are very proud of what we achieved so far and want to deliver this as well for the next generations in 2020."
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The IOC program commission report analysed more than three dozen criteria, including television ratings, ticket sales, anti-doping policy and global participation and popularity. With no official rankings or recommendations contained in the report, the final decision by the 15-member board was also subject to political, emotional and sentimental factors.
Oh well! It would be interesting to compare the 15-member nationalities to the medal wins by their countries.
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What next, get rid of the discus? Why did the IOC choose to ditch a quintessentially Olympic sport, a staple both of the ancient games and all modern ones since 1896? It offered no explanation, other than to say that the decision was reached by the 15 members of its executive board in a secret ballot. It will be rubber-stamped at the 125th IOC session in September.

On paper, the evaluation criteria for inclusion are clear. They comprise uncontroversial things like global participation, as well as seemingly less Coubertinian factors such as ticket sales and television ratings. Wrestling scores well on universality: athletes from 71 countries competed last year in London, compared to, say, 26 for modern pentathlon. It requires little—some would say too little—kit, making it more accessible than most other pursuits. And, unlike football, tennis or golf (which will reappear in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 after a 112-year absence from the games), it has stuck faithfully by Pierre de Coubertin’s amateur ideal. As important, an Olympic gold is to a wrestler the apogee of sporting achievement.
http://www.economist.com/blogs/gametheory/2013/02/wrestling-and-olympics?fsrc=scn/fb/wl/bl/Whatnextridofdiscus
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