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Greco-Roman in jeopardy
Discipline on list of Olympic sports that might be cut

By Paula Parrish, Rocky Mountain News
October 26, 2002

COLORADO SPRINGS - If the International Olympic Committee acts on the recommendations by one of its commissions, Rulon Gardner's golden moment at the 2000 Sydney Summer Games could be one of the final Olympic moments for the sport of Greco-Roman wrestling.

In August, the Olympic Programme Commission made headlines by recommending that baseball, softball and modern pentathlon be cut from the Olympics, starting with the 2008 Beijing Games.

The commission also recommended eliminating disciplines within certain Olympic sports, including one of the two disciplines within wrestling - either Greco-Roman wrestling or freestyle wrestling.

Though the commission was not specific about which discipline should face elimination, women's freestyle wrestling will become an Olympic sport in 2004, making it unlikely that Olympic officials would cut a discipline that now includes men and women.

"We contend that dropping a discipline is the same as dropping a sport, that this would mean the sport's disappearance from the world athletic scene," said Rich Bender, executive director of USA Wrestling, the national federation for the sport, which is based in Colorado Springs.

Greco-Roman wrestling was part of the ancient Olympics and has been in the modern Games since they started in 1896. At the IOC's behest in recent years, wrestling already has dropped from 20 men's weight classes to 14 (seven in Greco-Roman and seven in freestyle), with four women's freestyle classes at the 2004 Athens Games.

The IOC is scheduled to act on the commission's recommendations during its late November meeting in Mexico City, but all the Olympic sports and disciplines that have been put on the block are lobbying IOC members to remain in the Games.

The reasons behind the commission's recommendations seem arbitrary to almost everyone who has read its report. Regarding wrestling, the commission's report states, without giving supporting figures or statistics, that low public comprehension of the difference between Greco-Roman and freestyle wrestling has resulted in low broadcast and press coverage, resulting in a lack of global popularity.

That connection seems flawed, considering there are 150 countries with international wrestling federations fielding Greco-Roman and freestyle athletes.

"I have read the report, too, and I am not sure I have a full understanding of why these sports and disciplines were chosen," said Anita DeFrantz, an American IOC member.

New IOC president Jacques Rogge has made it clear that he believes the Olympics cannot grow beyond the current level of 10,500 athletes, 28 sports and 300 medal events - meaning that some sports will have to be cut if others are added, with rugby and golf being mentioned by the commission.

Wrestling is one of the cheapest and most accessible Olympic sports, making it available even to the poorest countries.

Middle Eastern countries would take a severe hit in the number of medals and athletes they send to the Games if a wrestling discipline was cut - and such a cut could lead to the death of that discipline worldwide.

The world wrestling community is strongly lobbying IOC members and has slammed the IOC Web site's public comment section.

"I guess this means the Olympics has become more about the business side than about the sports," Gardner said.

"We don't have big contracts. We're out there doing it for the love of the sport, and that's what the Olympics is supposed to be about."