Olympic wrestling faces uphill battle for reinstatement

Kelly Whiteside, USA TODAY Sports | USATODAY

When Harvey Schiller opened an email early Tuesday morning, he figured it must have been a mistake. The note said wrestling would be cut from the Summer Olympics beginning in 2020.

"Oh you mean, taekwondo?" Schiller, the former executive director of the U.S. Olympic Committee, typed back. Schiller is also a past president of the International Baseball Federation.

But shockingly it was true. The International Olympic Committee was expected to cut modern pentathlon but instead pinned wrestling based on criteria such as global participation and popularity. At its meetings in Switzerland, the 15-member executive board recommended that wrestling not be on the list of 25 core sports proposed for the 2020 Summer Games.

Wrestling, which was part of the first modern Olympics in 1896, has a chance to be included in the 2020 Games, but that is unlikely, according to those familiar with the IOC's processes and politics. Wrestling will compete against seven other sports vying for an Olympic spot: baseball/softball, karate, roller sports, sport climbing, squash, wakeboarding and wushu.

But wrestling's loss is expected to be another sport's gain. The IOC executive board will meet in May in St. Petersburg, Russia, to decide which sport or sports to recommend for 2020 inclusion. The final vote will be made in September in Buenos Aires.

So what was behind wrestling's takedown? And how might it affect the chances of other sports that have strong ties to the USA such as baseball and softball?

Jim Scherr, the former CEO of the U.S. Olympic Committee and an Olympic wrestler, said that the decision makers behind the move do not represent countries where wrestling is popular and successful. There are no executive board members from the USA, which has won 124 Olympic wrestling medals, or Russia, which along with the former Soviet Union has 167 wrestling medals. (Board member Sergei Bubka, an Olympic pole vault champion, is from Ukraine.)

"I wouldn't say that they were looking to make a decision that impacted any particular country including the United States," Scherr said. "But I do think it is a reflection of Euro-centric nature of the IOC board, the IOC membership as a whole. It may not be a deliberate slap at the U.S. or Russia or the Middle East, but it certainly can be taken that way because they didn't have strong representation."

The last sports removed from the Olympics were baseball and softball, voted out by the IOC in 2005. Though these combined cuts may seem like moves against the U.S., observers said wrestling's removal had more to do with internal politics and the fierce lobbying of the governing body for modern pentathlon.

Several IOC executive board members also have positions in sports administration. Board member Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr. is an executive with the modern pentathlon federation.

Rich Bender, executive director of USA Wrestling, said the decision was made by "uninformed individuals" who don't understand the diversity and international reach of his sport. At the same time, it appeared international wrestling officials weren't as persuasive as other sports, Scherr said.

Bender said it's up to USA Wrestling and the sport's international federation to increase its lobbying and education effort. "We're just an incredibly diverse sport regardless of race, color, size. It's a really inclusive sport," Bender said. "We're confident that we're going to be able to stay on the program for many years to come."

Based on the experience of baseball and softball, which failed in its first attempt to rejoin the Olympics, wrestling's return may not be in the near future. "I think it would be very, very tough to get wrestling back this time," said Schiller, a member of the IOC commission on women and sport.

Wrestling would have a better chance in the 2024 Games, Schiller said.

Scherr agreed that wrestling will face an "uphill battle." When a sport is removed, reinstalling soon after the decision would be considered a slight to the IOC brass responsible for the recommendation.

"We have some sympathy for wrestling because we know how it is to be cut from the program," said Don Porter, president of the International Softball Federation. Softball and baseball have combined forces to improve their chances for inclusion in 2020.

Though Porter doesn't like to compare his sport to others, baseball and softball will now have to face off against wrestling.

"I think this would be an unhappy occurrence for baseball and softball because it places another sport, an original Olympic sport that has strong popularity around the world, against them in a limited pool," Scherr said.

It could be viewed as a positive sign for squash. If taekwondo, another candidate, had been removed, karate and wushu may have benefited given a martial art would be replaced by a similar discipline.

Then again, the IOC acts in mysterious ways. "Everything I hear seems to be very positive about baseball and softball," Schiller said. "To this day I can't tell you what's in the minds of the Olympic committee."

Contributing: Gary Mihoces