News: IOC kills Wrestling from the Summer Games

U.S., Iran, Russia team up to save wrestling

 

Oh Snap! Who forgot to make the bribe.

 

The bitch probably wanted to divorce him and take his money.

 

Touche...

 

I wonder if US and Iran have strong enough lobbies that can overthrow the corrupt decision of IOC

 

I teach a course on sports and international affairs, in which we've long discussed the most important intersection between the US and Iran, which has been wrestling for at least 20 years. I think the list in the article Mani quoted a page or so is important as it shows the kinds of countries who have been chose to speak on behalf of the sport - the ten states which fared best at the last Olympics. It's an interesting mix of states.

As for failing to pay a bribe - I doubt the wrestling federation was even at the meeting. Another aspect of the class is "politicking about sport" and what it takes for sports to get added or dropped from the games. This completely flips the accepted model, since the decision cannot be reconciled with other decisions in the past.

Something I am positive about is that it has nothing to do with trying to isolate Iran. Indeed, the reverse will help wrestling's case for readmission: it has the potential to ease tensions with Iran and the west.

 

I don't see ANY sport being able to have the potential to ease tensions between the IRI and the West. The "ping-pong" diplomacy seen between China and the United States was conducted when China was moving away from its revolutionary excesses. The IRI still has not gotten rid of its revolutionaries. In fact, the IRI has seen a resurgence of its revolutionary fervor in the last 8 years or so. Khamanei recently said he was NOT a diplomat but a revolutionary.

Heck, EVEN when the IRI was moving toward moderation in the 1990's, football/soccer was not able to help ease tensions between the US and Iran when it was the most popular sport in Iran and more popular than wrestling in the US.

 

Im also very sceptic that this positive engagement between Iran's and US wrestling federations will lead to anything beyond that. Let's see what happens.

Edit: Btw Iran beat Russia in the final, and won the World Cup
I think they beat them in every weight class, but Im not sure.
Gonna watch it now.

 

Oh, it absolutely will not truly improve things politically. But that does not mean the idea that it might won't appeal to the IOC in a big way. There's something of a sibling rivalry between FIFA and the IOC about which one can do the most "good" away from the sporting realm, and which might pip the other to one day (perhaps soon) win the Nobel Peace Prize. Not that either should, but institutionally they are aware of positive legacies, and this would be a chance to publicly state that rapprochement is a factor in a decision.

There's lots of other considerations of course, but this is an avenue of pursuit for FILA to leverage, as evidenced by the clips provided by Mani above.

Ultimately and perhaps confusingly, something does not necessarily have to work for it to work.

 

LOL @ Ahmadinejad, he loves the attention

 

ABC News report about the US-Iran wrestling alliance

 

Australia has never won a medal in wrestling (not sure it has even won a match) and it is not a sport I would watch, but this is a farcical descision. Wrestling is one of the few sports that has a link not only to the beginning of the modern olympics but also back to the ancient games.

Rugby should be there IMO as it is probably the 3rd biggest team sport after Football and Basketball, although Volleyball would also be close, and 7s rugby which is the proposal is a good adaptation that will only take 2-3 days in a single stadium to run the competition, and allows smaller nations to have a better chance against the powerhouses, is more "amatuer" than the full game, and already has major international competitions. It has also been in the olympics before in 1900, 1908, 1920 and 1924 (France, Australiasia and USA(2) won the golds)

I dont' know about golf as it doesn't really fit the olympics for me (which part of faster higher stronger applies to golf?). But it shouldn't be at the expense of any other sport, golf wouldn't cost the host nation anything as it would be held at a golf course - not needing any upgrades for a city worthy of hosting the games, and should earn them some money as well.

It is what I would call the "made up sports" that should be kicked out IMO. The ones that dont have the history, in or out of olympic competitions. ie Synchronised swimming, trampolining, rythmic gymnastics (also the most corrupt sport in terms of judging) and synchronised diving. These sports are all in their just to increase the gold medal tallies of the (usually rich/ powerful) nations that are good at them.

 

The thing is that none of those sports are in the Olympics. Rather, swimming and gymnastics are in the Olympics; synchronized swimming and diving, and trampoline and rhythmic gymnastics are events under those sports. Anything under the purview of a particular international sporting federation is within the same sport, and a variety of events. Hence, wrestling and FILA are the (were the) Olympic sport, freestyle and Greco-Roman the events (rather than separate sports).

 

CNN Report

 

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