We Don't Need The Olympics

[TheOhioState]

If your girl decides she doesn't want to be with you anymore, you have two basic choices:

A. Fall to your knees, wrap your arms around her and beg her not to leave.
B. Find someone better- a girl who doesn't put half the restrictions on you that the other one did.

The Olympics doesn't want us. It's time to move on and find a better relationship.

You want 10 weight classes in Freestyle and Greco? You got 'em.

Create your own Olympics. Make it something beyond the World Championships.

Collegiate rowing has a model. The men are not governed by the NCAA. They created the Intercollegiate Rowing Association in the late 1800's, and today, in 2013, the IRA championship is considered the National Championship.

Let's do the same. We don't need the IOC and they don't want us. We can create an Olympics of our own design. It's perfect.

This post was deleted by Richard_Immel on Tue Feb 12, 2013 10:25 am.

[ccrider55]

If your girl decides she doesn't want to be with you anymore, you have two basic choices:

A. Fall to your knees, wrap your arms around her and beg her not to leave.
B. Find someone better- a girl who doesn't put half the restrictions on you that the other one did.

The Olympics doesn't want us. It's time to move on and find a better relationship.

You want 10 weight classes in Freestyle and Greco? You got 'em.

Create your own Olympics. Make it something beyond the World Championships.

Collegiate rowing has a model. The men are not governed by the NCAA. They created the Intercollegiate Rowing Association in the late 1800's, and today, in 2013, the IRA championship is considered the National Championship.

Let's do the same. We don't need the IOC and they don't want us. We can create an Olympics of our own design. It's perfect.

This is what I said in 2004 with the complete bastardization of what once was wrestling. Frankly, while disappointing I'm not going to miss the demise of this failed marketing move that took over FILA.

[BuckyBadger]

It's not that simple. Sure, with no Olympics we have the ability to govern ourselves, and have more weight classes etc. However, if we lose Olympic sponsorship for wrestling, then wouldn't college programs be dropped at an even faster pace than they already are? Why would the NCAA continue to support wrestling if it's not an Olympic sport?

College rooms are the places where most of our guys train and earn enough of a living so they can support themselves while they train for Worlds/Olympics. Without that we lose an infrastructure that is critical to our success in international wrestling.

So no Olympic sponsorship could mean a huge loss in funding and indirect support for international wrestling.

[Viking_Slap]

It's not that simple. Sure, with no Olympics we have the ability to govern ourselves, and have more weight classes etc. However, if we lose Olympic sponsorship for wrestling, then wouldn't college programs be dropped at an even faster pace than they already are? Why would the NCAA continue to support wrestling if it's not an Olympic sport?

College rooms are the places where most of our guys train and earn enough of a living so they can support themselves while they train for Worlds/Olympics. Without that we lose an infrastructure that is critical to our success in international wrestling.

So no Olympic sponsorship could mean a huge loss in funding and indirect support for international wrestling.

Apologies to BuckyBadger in advance, but I am not a wrestler in college from the US. However, the elimination of wrestling from the Olympics hurts me as perhaps millions of other world-wide. I understand that from an American point of view that wrestling in college would be hit. Maybe this is not the forum to raise this - but don't the wrestling clubs in the US provide talented wrestlers without college support ( I refer to Sunkist and NY Atheltic club). More importantly - I agree with you in that wrestlings in Olympics must not be cut!

[ccrider55]

It's not that simple. Sure, with no Olympics we have the ability to govern ourselves, and have more weight classes etc. However, if we lose Olympic sponsorship for wrestling, then wouldn't college programs be dropped at an even faster pace than they already are? Why would the NCAA continue to support wrestling if it's not an Olympic sport?

College rooms are the places where most of our guys train and earn enough of a living so they can support themselves while they train for Worlds/Olympics. Without that we lose an infrastructure that is critical to our success in international wrestling.

So no Olympic sponsorship could mean a huge loss in funding and indirect support for international wrestling.

NCAA wrestling is not an Olympic sport. What team has received support from the IOC? I'm of the opinion it's the schools that have been providing most of the infrastructure and support for the international styles. With the IOC out of the picture perhaps now FILA can get back to restoring the actual sport of wrestling without worrying what some marketing reps for ad companies are concerned about in one month every four years.

[BuckyBadger]

I know that NCAA wrestling is not an Olympic sport and schools don't receive funding from the IOC. But non-revenue NCAA sports are generally Olympic sports. Track & Field, Swimming & diving, gymnastics etc. If a non-revenue sport is not in Olympics, this is probably bad in terms of the NCAA supporting wrestling as a college sport. If we don't have the college infrastructure in place, then any ideas of expanding weight classes etc are meaningless if we can't support all the wrestlers training for international styles.

[judaspriest]

I agree - Olympics, largely due to IOC (and FILA in case of wrestling) was more and more harmful to the sport, even before it got dropped.

The rule changes have slowly turned olympic and world championship wrestling into something barely watchable, even for fans like us.

Having grown up abroad, I am naturally inclined towards freestyle and greco. However, in the recent decade or so, I've been finding college-level wreslting in the US (despite riding) far more enjoyable and easier to follow to boot (due to bigger coverage).

[ccrider55]

It's not that simple. Sure, with no Olympics we have the ability to govern ourselves, and have more weight classes etc. However, if we lose Olympic sponsorship for wrestling, then wouldn't college programs be dropped at an even faster pace than they already are? Why would the NCAA continue to support wrestling if it's not an Olympic sport?

College rooms are the places where most of our guys train and earn enough of a living so they can support themselves while they train for Worlds/Olympics. Without that we lose an infrastructure that is critical to our success in international wrestling.

So no Olympic sponsorship could mean a huge loss in funding and indirect support for international wrestling.

Apologies to BuckyBadger in advance, but I am not a wrestler in college from the US. However, the elimination of wrestling from the Olympics hurts me as perhaps millions of other world-wide. I understand that from an American point of view that wrestling in college would be hit. Maybe this is not the forum to raise this - but don't the wrestling clubs in the US provide talented wrestlers without college support ( I refer to Sunkist and NY Atheltic club). More importantly - I agree with you in that wrestlings in Olympics must not be cut!

In the USA athletics are ingrained and pervasive through the school systems as opposed to in Europe where clubs provide the opportunities. Almost all US high school students have access to a wide variety of sports at a nominal cost. The Sunkist and NYAC and most others get their athletes from the HS and college ranks (mostly). Kind of a feeder system that specializes in folk style, and supplements with FS and GR in the off season.

[gutfirst]

good riddance to the ioc. wrestling will be just fine. we may take a hit here in the us because americans love folkstyle. the rest of the world will go on business as usual.

[cwillaert]

To those who say that NCAA programs are not benefitting from wrestling as an Olympic sport, you may want to look a little closer. How much time do wrestlers from all divisions across the college ranks spend at places like the OTC in Colorado Springs? Seems to me that there are a lot of wrestlers spending a lot of time out there every chance they get. And there are a lot of college wrestlers competing in freestyle and greco at the junior and university levels as well. These opportunities have absolutely made a lot of college wrestlers better.

My biggest fear is that without wrestling in the Olympics there will be many opportunities disappearing for the college age athletes all the way down to the 5 year old pee wees.

[dsnc471]

good riddance to the ioc. wrestling will be just fine. we may take a hit here in the us because americans love folkstyle. the rest of the world will go on business as usual.

As corrupt as the Olympics may be, it is still the pinnacle of amateur athletics, especially for sports in which athletes can't go pro and strike it rich. So having wrestling represented in the Olympics adds extra credibility and prestige to the sport, and its removal from the Olympics can't help but have a negative impact on the sport worldwide. As far as the US goes, this is potentially a very negative turn of events for college wrestling, because removal from the Olympics feeds into the stereotype that "wrestling is dying" all over the world and isn't very popular. Of course those of us who follow the numbers know that this isn't true at the high school level, yet college administrators looking to cut sports use lack of participation as justification for cutting wrestling. Seeing it dropped from the Olympics will make wrestling even more likely to be the first sport to be cut at colleges like this.

[sse01]

Glad that this kind of thread has started.
After hearing all the outrage from wrestling friends, my opinion has been - who cares
1. The sport is vastly different from folkstyle wrestling today and quite different from what is was in the 70's to 90's. I find it hard to defend it when friends, parents and kids I coach complain about the rules and how they don't understand it.
2. How much do we really get out of the Olympics? The wrestling is almost never on NBC, if your lucky you DVR it and hope that the schedule didn't change and you get to catch the few matches they choose to show.
Now I'll conceed Burroughs has gotten quite a bit of recognition, but I think he is a unique case. Has Varner gotten any addional accolades? I bet if I asked 10 parents at my youth wrestling practice, maybe 2 would know who he is and that he won a gold medal in 2012 and I am only about 2 hours from State College.
3. Now if any programs drop because of this of course its terrible, but do we really think this is the case? It feels like schools with wrestling aren't going to suddenly drop the sport because its no longer an Olympic Sport. Wrestling is on TV non-stop. The Big Ten Network, Fox College Sports and other networks have so much wrestling on that I can barely watch it all. I don't think that is going to change if MSNBC doesn't have freestyle wrestling on at 2:30 in the morning in 2020.

[josefsmoe]

I also think we lose more senior level wrestlers to MMA.

[gutfirst]

good riddance to the ioc. wrestling will be just fine. we may take a hit here in the us because americans love folkstyle. the rest of the world will go on business as usual.

As corrupt as the Olympics may be, it is still the pinnacle of amateur athletics, especially for sports in which athletes can't go pro and strike it rich. So having wrestling represented in the Olympics adds extra credibility and prestige to the sport, and its removal from the Olympics can't help but have a negative impact on the sport worldwide. As far as the US goes, this is potentially a very negative turn of events for college wrestling, because removal from the Olympics feeds into the stereotype that "wrestling is dying" all over the world and isn't very popular. Of course those of us who follow the numbers know that this isn't true at the high school level, yet college administrators looking to cut sports use lack of participation as justification for cutting wrestling. Seeing it dropped from the Olympics will make wrestling even more likely to be the first sport to be cut at colleges like this.

not no more it's not. time to have new goals. best in the world seems lofty enough to me.