I may not have been happy about the way he ran the war in Iraq, but I’m in complete agreement with Donald Rumsfeld in decrying the insane decision by the International Olympic Committee to drop wrestling:
Wrestling is a universal sport. To compete, all that is needed is an opponent and a flat surface. Anyone can participate, regardless of geography, weather, race, gender, culture or economic background. It doesn’t require a golf course, a swimming pool or a horse. More than 170 nations from all over the globe have competed. In the 1996 Olympics alone, 75 countries were represented on the mat. Athletes from a great number of nations have won medals — countries as diverse as Iran, South Korea, Sweden, Cuba and Hungary. Indeed, more countries have been represented on the winners’ podium for wrestling than for nearly any other sport.
Wrestling uniquely encapsulates the Olympic spirit, even though it harkens back to older and more martial virtues, rather than the arts festival and Kumbaya session that some may prefer the modern Games to be. Few other sports are so directly aggressive: It is you vs. one other person. There is nothing to hide behind; there are no time-outs. It is all up to you. Yet, precisely because of those conditions, few other sports create such remarkable camaraderie among their participants…
Yeah, I know, some of y’all’s hackles are rising over that Kumbaya crack. But hey, the Committee invited wild speculation with its unexplained, secret vote.
And what did they vote to replace wrestling with? An idiotic nonsport called the modern pentathlon:
You might have missed the modern pentathlon last summer in London, where only 26 countries participated in the combined shooting, horseback-riding, running, swimming and fencing event. In the same Olympics, there were wrestling medalists from 29 countries. In other words: more countries won medals in wrestling than competed in the modern pentathlon. Globally, the TV audience for wrestling averages 23 million viewers. The modern pentathlon averages 12.5 million.
… which calls for someone to quote Dave Barry and say, “I am not making this up.”
I was a wrestler in high school. I had an undistinguished career. Both years I was on my high school team, after weeks of training, something intervened to knock me out of contention (bad case of bronchitis one year, a neck injury the next). But I had enough exposure to appreciate a pure sport for what it was.
I can’t even begin to imagine what those clowns on the Committee were thinking.
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It is a very dull sport to watch without the leap from the top of the ropes by the likes of Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka or the Iron Sheik pulling a foreign object from his trunks to rake across Hulk Hogan’s eyes. Probably is due to low ticket sales and tv ratings. An MMA Olympic title would be really interesting though – wouldn’t have to rely on the corrupt boxing judges.
I think the pentathlon sounds pretty cool. Although a TRUE modern pentathlon would include Google searching, channel flipping, microwaving, texting while driving, and walking through Whole Foods without spending $100.
Wrestling has this problem: while it’s easily the most intense sport I’ve ever participated in, that intensity isn’t immediately evident to the casual observer.
Wrestling is kind of a lonely sport. In “Vision Quest” THE wrestling movie (see clip above), our hero Loudon is taken to task for lacking team spirit, and responds, “I’ve got news for you, Otto: Wrestling is not a team sport.”
No one can really share in the struggle of a wrestler straining against his opponent. When two wrestlers are well-matched, it can seem like nothing’s happening, even as they’re both calling on their last reserves of strength and skill, trying to obtain an advantage.
I admit I’ve seldom watched wrestling on the tube. But then, I seldom watch any sports, so I’m not a good standard…
“Win, Win” with Paul Giamatti was a sleeper hit two years ago. Worth watching.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1606392/
As for wrestling literature, you can’t beat John Irving’s classics: World According to Garp and Hotel New Hampshire. You may want to stay away from his most recent novel, “In One Person”, though, as the wrestling scenes are part of a “coming of age” story for a transexual high school wrestler.
I saw the Paul Giamatti one. That felt more like a character study movie than a wrestling movie. For instance, the clip above, eight minutes long, shows the whole climactic match with Shute. There’s not that much wrestling in all of “Win-Win,” near as I recall.
There are a lot of things I love about Vision Quest beyond the wrestling. It just really evokes the feeling of what it’s like to be a 17-year-old kid. Or a boy, anyway — from his hopeless, clumsy desire for Carla (I love the scene when he informs his teacher that he’s suffering from “priapism”) to the ways that kids build things up in their unformed minds. Such as Kuch getting so into being what he’s not, an Indian. Or the way the high school rumor mill builds up Shute into a larger-than-life monster, and the way Shute himself plays to it.
Wrestling is one of the original Olympic sports! I don’t know how they can justify taking out one of the oldest sports to keep the modern pentathlon. Oh, by the way, the original (ancient) pentathlon included what sport? You guessed it: Wrestling.
This is a decision based on marketing, modernization, and lobbying. Here are some events that should have gotten the ax prior to wrestling:
1. Synchronized Swimming: This is not a sport. I respect them and all (as athletes), but seriously. They need to go. It’s like these are the people who didn’t make the Olympic swim team.
2. Trampoline. This is about the silliest event ever. I keep waiting for someone to say “OK, just kidding. Trampoline isn’t an actual event; we were just kidding.”
3. Ping-Pong. No, it’s not table tennis. It’s ping pong. Seriously, if we’re going to have ping-pong, then why not Foosball and pool? Maybe the Brits would like to add Snooker. It’s a table game, for crying out loud.
I vote for chess as an Olympic sport. Makes about as much sense as the horse riding stuff.
Ever ridden a horse English saddle, bud? It is quite a workout!
Oh the horror stories I hear of horse riding practice…
The only workout you get riding a horse is a sore butt.
Try posting the trot for a bit and get back to me.
You’re just happy to be involved in a “sport” discussion… even though the “sport” you’re discussion is one typically only available to the upper-crust of society. I don’t see your urban yutes out at the stables… unless they’re cleaning stalls.
What were they thinking? If there is a History major in the group he/she/they should be shot at dawn.
Bryan is totally right.
I’m with Doug on this. Wrestling’s not as good as it used to be.
I have to disagree with Warthen calling the new pentathlon idiotic. It sounds pretty badass to me. Not only does it include horseback riding and swords, but also guns.
If you’re complaining that getting rid of wrestling violates the spirit of the original Greek Olympics than you should also be demanding that all athletes compete naked and that the opening ceremony should include animal sacrifices and oaths to Zeus. Jeez the modern Olympics were created by a group of pompous European aristocrats. And early on the modern Olympics had a distinct class bias to it. Only amateurs could compete (meaning trust-funders who had plenty of time to sit around practicing a sport they did not need to get paid to compete in), however if you were a working-class professional athlete (no trust-fund to support you, meaning you played the sport for a living) too bad no gold medal for you.
Doug is right, wrestling is boring. I was disappointed when the IOC dropped baseball, but thats how the modern Olympics are. If the sport doesn’t have a broad international following then its going to get cut. All those national and international broadcasters aren’t going to broadcast a bunch of events their audiences are not interested in watching.