"Dropping Wrestling from the Olympics"
Wrestling is a sport that has been
around longer than any other. It is a one on one, battle of the fittest. This
past February, plans to drop wrestling from the Olympics were revealed.
Wrestling has been in the Olympics from its start in 708 B.C. and also in 1896
A.D. when the “modern Olympics” were said to have began. Reasons for dropping
the sport are mainly because of the recent decline in popularity and
participation. Worldwide, wrestlers have shown opposition to the proposition of
dropping wrestling from the Olympics.
These
new plans to drop the oldest sport in the Olympics are questionable to say the
least. The history of this sport
should be enough to keep it around. Nations across the world compete and it's
not as if one nation dominates the sport every year. Bulgaria has sixty-eight medals, Finland and Sweden have one
hundred and sixty-seven medals, and countries all over the world have wrestlers
placing each year. Especially since sports like
badminton and synchronized diving are still prevalent in the Olympics, it makes
eliminating wrestling that much worse. The competition in wrestling is fierce and to take away this
from the Olympics would be verging on sinful.
While it wasn't the very first Olympic sport, there's definitely a case to be made for wrestling to stay in the Olympics. In my opinion, when events such as synchronized swimming and trampoline-jumping exist, regardless of their difficulty, they should not be placed in front of a classic sport such as wrestling. You can't tell me there are more speed walking fans out there than wrestling fans with a straight face.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree Micah. With wrestling being one of the first competitions in recorded history it's a complete mistake to take it away from the Olympics. Now while I agree there isn't a huge fan base world wide like there is with say soccer or swimming, people will tune in to watch wrestling even though they know nothing about it. Like on Twitter this past summer most people had no idea who Jordan Burroughs was, but once his gold medal match went live people tuned in from all over the world and cheered him on. I also agree with you Stavros. Without a doubt wrestling is the hardest sport out there. With the addition of the less complicated and demanding sports of speed walking and rhythm gymnastics it just doesn't make sense to kick the hardest workers to the curb. I'm not saying they need to take out these lesser known sports, but I am saying they need to save Olympic wrestling.
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