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NEPA News November 08, 2002
Buried in the anonymous underworld of American amateur wrestling, a sport compacted to a status barely above recreational level at many colleges and eliminated altogether at hundreds of others, dozens of women are chasing gold medals.
Here's the surprise: They're going after Olympic gold medals.
Many Americans probably don't know the sport exists apart from the fantasy land of TV's entertainment wrestling. Yet, in less than two years, women's wrestling will be as much a part of the Athens Olympics as track and field, swimming or basketball.
The relatively unknown sport's inclusion is being welcomed by a U.S. amateur wrestling community that has known only subtraction for 30 years. Since Title IX was implemented, 430 colleges have dropped the traditionally all-male sport as they scrambled to meet the government's mandate for gender equality in athletics.
"I once was very skeptical whether women would be good enough to compete in the Olympics," said Bruce Baumgartner, a two-time Olympic freestyle champion and former president of USA Wrestling. "But as I've watched it grow and develop, there are very good women's wrestlers who are physically and technically very sound. I think people will be surprised at how good it is, and I think it's only going to grow now that it's an Olympic sport."
What troubles Baumgartner and others in the sport is the price that may be paid for including women: the loss of Greco-Roman wrestling, which gave the Sydney Games one of its great moments with former Wyoming farm boy Rulon Gardner upsetting Russian strongman Alexander Karelin.
To accommodate the women, the weight classes in men's freestyle and Greco-Roman have been trimmed from 10 each in Atlanta in 1996 to eight in 2000 to seven at Athens in 2004. One weight class in boxing also is to be cut.
By 2008, Greco-Roman may be gone from the games forever. Citing minimal public interest and almost nonexistent media coverage, the International Olympic Committee's Program Committee recommended the elimination of one of wrestling's two disciplines by the Beijing Games.
Greco-Roman, which differs from freestyle in that holds below the waist are barred, has been included in the Olympics since the first modern games at Athens in 1896. Then, all matches were held outdoors in a sand pit.
"The elimination ... would reduce wrestling's influence everywhere," said Rich Bender, the executive director of USA Wrestling, the sport's national governing body. "The one major sport that has been in both the modern and ancient games is being threatened. This recommendation would destroy wrestling, in spite of its popularity in almost every nation."
Greco isn't the only sport being targeted; baseball, softball, modern pentathlon and race walking are on the list, along with disciplines in badminton, canoe-kayaking, equestrian, rowing, sailing, shooting and synchronized swimming.
Greco-Roman is not wrestled at the high school or college level in the United States, but some freestylers ultimately switch to it. If it is trimmed from the Olympics, it likely would push even more athletes away from a sport whose popularity already is limited mostly in a few Midwestern states, as well as Pennsylvania.
"It will be great to have women in the Olympics, but I would hate to lose Greco," said Baumgartner, the athletic director at Edinboro University. "Nobody is thrilled about the change. Wrestling was always the sport that anyone could compete in, no matter the size or weight, and it gave a lot of countries that don't normally win medals a chance to win: Iran, the Scandinavian countries. I don't see them winning in swimming or diving.
"This frustrates me from a pure wrestling standpoint."
Eliminating Greco would deprive the United States of one of its consistent Olympic medal producers and force the U.S. Olympic Committee into even more of a hurry-up mode with its women's program. Currently, only six colleges sponsor women's wrestling, although several more (Cal State-Bakersfield, Pacific and Princeton) have women on their men's teams. A national training center for women's wrestlers was established recently at Colorado Springs, with former Iowa star Terry Steiner as coach.
Elsewhere, women's wrestling is expanding rapidly as countries try to take advantage of a potential medal opportunity in a relatively low-overhead sport. As a result, the United States _ a power until now _ finished a disappointing 11th in the Nov. 2-3 world championships in Greece, trailing Canada, France and Ukraine, among others.
No American won a gold medal, and only 121-pounder Tina George took a silver.
"With four returning medalists and the potential to medal at every weight, it (the performance) was a lot lower than the most modest estimates," United States coach Chris Horpel said.
Even before they've officially wrestled in the Olympics, some women aren't entirely happy with the way the inclusion is being carried out.
This month's world championships featured seven weight classes, but there will be only four in Athens. That means many wrestlers must add or lose considerable weight to find a suitable class, and some may skip the process altogether if their targeted weight class becomes loaded.
"Over the years, the Olympic committee has worked in mysterious ways," Baumgartner said. "The women are being accepted well, but nobody is thrilled how it happened."