Wrestling: An historical sport battles to stay related in Olympics

Despite being a pioneer of sports activities, wrestling struggles to win over followers after virtually shedding its place within the Olympic Games in 2013, when the International Olympic Committee voted to drop it from the Games programme, efficient 2020.
The resolution induced havoc. The president of the game’s governing physique, FILA (now United World Wrestling), resigned after a movement of no confidence. Two adorned wrestlers returned their medals, whereas one even went on starvation strike.
One cause for the elimination was believed to be the shortage of star athletes within the sport, though it’s extremely standard in some nations like Iran, the United States and the hosts Japan.
IOC had cited low ticket gross sales, low recognition, low TV rankings, and a scarcity of oversight and variety, as competitions for girls have been solely added in 2004.
Back in 2013, the IOC additionally famous that the worldwide wrestling federation had no athletes on its decision-making our bodies, no girls’s fee, no ethics guidelines for technical officers and no medical official on its government board.
Following adjustments in management, and revisions to the programme for 2016, together with rule adjustments and extra girls’s competitions, wrestling efficiently campaigned to be readmitted to Olympics.
Even so, its future stays unsure after the subsequent Games in 2024.
Traced again to cave drawings over 15,000 years outdated, wrestling is taken into account one of many oldest sports activities, believed to have been practiced for the reason that daybreak of civilisation.
Greco-Roman wrestling was the primary model of wrestling included within the Games, with freestyle added in 1904.
Wrestlers have interaction in intense battles stuffed with highly effective and swift strikes. The Russian Federation (previously USSR) has gained probably the most general medals, adopted by high nations just like the United States, Japan, Cuba, Georgia, Iran and Turkey.