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TO THE MAT

Pols Body Slam Olympic Committee for Dropping Wrestling

McCain, Rumsfeld say it's a bad call

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by David Mark

Editor-in-Chief t +

Image: AP.

It's not exactly a burning national security question. But the International Olympic Committee's decision to drop wrestling as an Olympic sport in 2020 has some prominent Republicans awfully steamed.

Tweeted Sen. John McCain (@SenJohnMcCain): "Really bad decision by the #IOC to drop wrestling - one of the oldest sports, around since the ancient Greeks. #Olympics".

Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld shares that opinion. "Wrestling dropped from the Olympics? Has the IOC lost its senses?" tweeted Rumsfeld (@RumsfeldOffice), a Princeton wrestler in the early 1950s.

The IOC recently recommended ending wrestling competition after assessing the performance of all 26 sports at the 2012 London Games, BBC reports. Wrestling, which combines freestyle and Greco-Roman events, was included in the inaugural modern Olympics in Athens in 1896.

Politix reporting, and via BBC.

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Was the IOC wrong to drop wrestling, as McCain and Rumsfeld say?

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49 Comments (view in Forum)

  • jessejaymes
    !
    You know in my entire life I have never watched an Olympic Wrestling event. But the thought did cross my mind that they're dropping wrestling and keeping rhythmic gymnastics, an event in which people prance and swish while tossing a rubber ball in the air and flit around with paper maiche streamers. Ah well, sign of the times. 10% of the world must be appeased.
  • AceLuby
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    It's like when they cancelled baseball and softball a couple Olympics ago. Don't be surprised if basketball ends up on this list...
  • JustTheFacts
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    The reason you've probably never seen it is because they don't air it during prime time. Just like the martial arts or the shooting sports ... guess it's to violent for liberal TV! Maybe they can replacing wrestling with a singing contest ... I'm sure that would be right up there alley!
  • jessejaymes
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    @JustTheFacts I have no use for the olympics anymore. Back when you could order the triplecast on cable and watch anything all the time I ordered that and enjoyed it a lot. But today it's 2 minutes of Olympics and 30 minutes of commercials. And when they put rhythmic gymnastics in prime time I walked. I haven't been back. There is a reason that the ballet has to be subsidized to survive. And watching some guy flit around waving a paper mache ribbon is not my idea of "sport".
  • Yank
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    @AceLuby the decision is based off of "TV ratings, ticket sales, anti-doping and global popularity". Basket ball was ranked the #5 most popular sport at the 2012 Olympics.
  • NormalFlora
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    I would drop equestrian events (after all it's the horse more than the rider who deserves the medal), shooting, archery, badminton, rhythmic gymnastics, synchronized anything, and table tennis.

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  • frigginhell
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    All of that and you get to see to sweaty guys roll around grabbing one another. No wonder the GOP came out in support. The closet party for the closet sport. Nah, really it should stay. It's one of the original competitions from the original games. I think the problem with it and most olympic contact sports is the nature in which it's judged turns fans off. That's true of a lot of other events as well though. Something more straight forward about a race with a winner and a loser. And gymnastics has cute chicks. Wrestling just has two sweaty guys scoring points for reasons only people who like watching sweaty guys roll around with each other understand. Kind of a turn off. Unless, like some prominent gop members, you have a television set hidden in the closet so you can watch it on your breaks.
  • mtkopf
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    @frigginhell well, as ppl on this site can attest, I hate to he GOP party. But, I love REAL sports.

    As for gymnastics, remember those "cute chicks" are mostly underaged girls.
  • frigginhell
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    @mtkopf I don't see those. I only see the ones that are 18 and older. Like Shawn Johnson, she was not attractve at all until 2010. Then she became a cute chick. Before that I hadn't even realized she was running around on the television.
  • Food4thoughts
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    Greco Roman Wrestling was one of the original Olympic sports and besides that 3 events were on the chopping block: pentathlon, badminton, and wrestling (freestyle/GR)...are you kidding me badminton was chosen over wrestling...what a joke
  • Food4thoughts
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    A side note...Pankration was also an original event that is most comparable to modern day MMA...a sport that McCain was extremely boisterously against calling it "human cockfighting"
  • Dan_Tien
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    @Food4thoughts Pankration is a modern invention. An attempt to recreate ancient Greek fighting methods by combining modern Asian martial art techniques with techniques contrived from studying ancient Greek paintings of warriors. Hard to say just how accurate it is.
  • Food4thoughts
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    @Dan_Tien
    Pankration (pron.:/pæn.ËkreÉŞti.É’n/ or /pæŋËkreÉŞĘÉ™n/) was a martial art introduced into the Greek Olympic Games in 648 BC and founded as a blend of boxing and wrestling but with scarcely any rules. The only things not acceptable were biting and gouging of the opponent's eyes. The term comes from the Greek παγκĎpaĹ‹krátion], literally meaning "all powers" from πᾶν(pan-) "all" +ÎşĎάτÎkratos) "strength, power"

    http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pankration
  • Dan_Tien
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    @Food4thoughts The original fighting methods of the ancient Greeks were lost long ago. Attempts to recreate them have resulted in something that might be similar. From the link that you posted:

    "'Amateur Pankration' was first introduced to the martial arts community by Greek-American combat athlete Jim Arvanitis in 1969 and later exposed worldwide in 1973 when he was featured on the cover of Black Belt magazine. Arvanitis continually refined his reconstruction with reference to original sources"
  • DerivePI
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    They should get rid of commercials instead. "Perhaps a seasoning of sports with your commercials?" 5 minutes of a bunch of emaciated skinny people running way too far of a distance followed by 10 minutes of food advertisements.
  • Buzzfriendly
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    I think it would be infinitely more interesting to introduce the WWF wrestling style to the Olympics. Not that particularly care for it but it is certainly more entertaining to watch than the historic type of wrestling in the Olympics.
  • InTheDark
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    That would be more entertaining if the viewer is more interested in show-biz than athleticism. Good for a circus, but the Olympics are not supposed to be show-biz—the opening and closing being glaring exceptions.
  • Buzzfriendly
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    @InTheDark Well I guess I am more interested in show-biz because the athleticism aspect of wrestling in the Olympics bores the hell out of me. Its just hard to get excited about pushing someone outside of a circle no matter how difficult and skillful that may be.
  • Brownie
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    It's stupid idea. The sport helps wrestlers get prizes and endorsements like any sport. Some people livelihood depends on it. But, if the Olympics feels there is not a lot of people interested in the sport. Then there is something that need to be done help the sport get back on track. but anyway, I thought republicans believe that anyone who owns a business. Should spend their money, as they see fit. Correct?
  • harold_lloyd
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    What I am sure of is that those guys should be in their offices making government work better instead of having any position at all about something this irrelevant to their day jobs as public servants....
  • Dan_Tien
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    Wrestling was my favorite competitive sport in high school. I hate to see it dropped from the Olympics. There are a number of competitive martial arts in the Olympics that don't get TV coverage, even though the intent of the original Olympics was to promote peace by giving young warriors a venue to compete in peace rather than in war. Now it seems to be an opportunity for cameras to linger on the butts of beach volleyballers.
  • AlexMIA
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    Why would they drop wrestling? That's probably one of the oldest Olympic sports and probably also one of the most completely competetive too.
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