One of the original sports in the Olympics, wresting, has been eliminated to make room for golf. That’s right, golf. Why? It’s all about the money so screw tradition. The prostitution of culture continues, led by the greedy and corrupt. Ten years from now they’ll probably hold the Olympics in Vegas and allow the entertainers (because they won’t be athletes any more) to wear advertising regalia because the teams will be from companies not countries. “And now, Team Facebook faces Citibank in the grueling Speed Twittering competition.”
The IOC is known to most people for its long history of corruption and excess. However, it will occasionally take a break from self-dealing to undermine its institution. The sport of wrestling featured 344 athletes competing in 11 medal events in freestyle and seven in Greco-Roman at last year’s London Olympics. It also was one of the unbroken links to the origins of the Olympics and one of the most impressive physically demanding sports. It will now be replaced by golf? The decision seems overly cynical and opportunistic. There is more money in golf and viewers around the world.
Wrestling is indeed physically demanding. I once studied Krav Maga, a martial art. After 18 months they started a ground fighting (AKA wrestling) class. We were all in excellent shape. The instructor, an LAPD officer who trained other cops, started the first class by telling us pair off. One person gets on the floor on his back, with the other on top of him, then tries for 60 seconds to get him off. Then switch off. At the end of this, when we were all lying on the floor wheezing, he made his point without saying a word. Ground fighting is way more strenuous than regular martial arts.
And the Olympics is going to replace this real sport, one with a tradition going back to the first Olympics, with golf?