Wrestling dropped

[Gantry]

JB interviews Alan Abrahamson, a longtime writer about the IOC. Gives a great breakdown of how the IOC works and how they associate with the various sports International Federations. Both sets of insight him & JB provide are eye opening. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND that everyone take the time to listen to this. Alan says things and makes points that nobody in the wrestling community is making, great outside perspective:

On The Mat: Journalist Alan Abrahamson

[Gantry]

Here's the article Alan wrote about it today:

3 Wire Sports

[arm-spin]

Login Interesting discussion of the ways FILA screwed up... what's frustrating is that these were all solvable issues (more women on the executive, more active presence on social media, athletes involved in decision making, ect). I still think the IOC screwed wrestling over, but FILA appears to have given them the opening they needed.

[BlueBloodLion]

Did anyone else catch that the IOC might be feeling the backlash and is considering allowing 3 sports to enter with the next voting round? That would seem to offer hope.

It seems that the full IOC is a bit pissed about the whole thing. Maybe that helps as well.

Here is a link:
International Olympic Committee may face wrestling revolt | Other Sport | BDlive

[Gantry]

Jordonov returns his Gold Medal out of protest:

Yordanov returns gold in protest at wrestling's demise - Yahoo! News

[arm-spin]

There's still time to save Olympic wrestling: Column Coleman Scott's take.

New wrestling head says sport must reform rules to regain Olympic status | CTV News new head of FILA reccomends spectator friendly rule changes

New wrestling head says sport must reform rules to regain Olympic status | CTV News wrestling and Iran/US relations

[cornellbigred04]

New wrestling head says sport must reform rules to regain Olympic status | CTV News wrestling and Iran/US relations

Quote from the article:

"Even Iran and the United States have established a rare alliance to keep wrestling Olympic despite political hostility between them."

Seems to me like that sentence pretty much sums up the Olympic spirit as the Olympics were intended to be.

[ODH]

CNN had about 5-10 minute piece on the how important wrestling was in Iran and the the repsect US-Iranian wrestling athletes and fans have for each other. It used the world cup as a back drop for this story. I assume this story came with a push from the PR department of USA Wrestling, so good job there.

On a similar note multiple people who know I am a wrestling fan, but have no interest in wrestling have commented on how silly it was for the Olympics to drop wrestling. It does look like the mesaage is getting out there at least in this country. Maybe there will be enough backlash for the full IOC to reverse the decision by the executive when they next meet.

[arm-spin]

Sagid Murtazaliev also returned his gold medal in protest, while Arman Nazarian (Bulgarian coach now, I think) is starting a hunger strike.

I'm copying a post the Canadian women's coach made on the Canadian forum. This is only one person's view but it is not terribly encouraging.

Having just come back from Mongolia, I wish I shared your optimism.
There is a great amount of work to be done. Our leaders were told very clearly a number of the expectations the IOC had, yet neglected to act...
Jim Scheer is battling daily and is not overly sure of the final outcome.
Our meeting at World Cup, and the way people continue to conduct themselves leave me very worried.
In many instances the representatives from our international federation have learned nothing, and go about their business with the same arrogance and bully mentality.