High school athletes upset that Olympic wrestling is in peril
»Play Video
OREGON CITY, Ore. – At Oregon City High School, the wrestlers hit the mats Thursday not knowing if the Olympic dreams they’ve grown up with will ever come true.
The reactions at practice were similar:
“I looked at it and I was like ‘no way, they're cutting wrestling?’” said junior Alex Canchola.
“My heart kind of dropped, I think it would be a bunch of bologna if they did take it out,” added junior Tanner Fischer.
This week, the International Olympic Committee dropped wrestling from the 25 core sports that make up the Summer Games, citing low ticket sales and TV ratings.
But a worldwide backlash is quickly building momentum for a sport as old as the Olympics themselves.
OCHS’s wrestling head coach Roger Rolen’s instructions to his team during practice are symbolic of his stance on the issue: “Don't get taken down! Don't get taken down!”
Rolen called the Olympics news “a stab to the gut.”
If the IOC’s decision is upheld, wrestling could be out of the games by 2020.
“It's like the epitome of what you can become as a wrestler and if you take that goal and that dream away from people it robs you of some motivation that you would have,” OCHS senior Parker Folliard said.
“For that to be taken away I think it really challenges the legitimacy of our sport and especially for those college guys, what are they going to look forward to?” asked senior Kyle Sether.
Rolen thinks this decision will actually help pull the wrestling community together.
“We're fighters, you know, that's what this is,” he said. “It's a group that will stand together. You know I look in 14 months to see it changed.”
And his team hopes their shot at Olympic gold won’t be pinned for good.
Sether, “Maybe none of us are going to be Olympians or Olympic champions or anything but to have that as a goal, or a dream I think that's huge,” Sether said.
The fight’s far from over; the full Olympic committee would still need to ratify the decision in September.
Meanwhile IOC president Jacque Rogge is taking criticism from around the world and already has a meeting scheduled with wrestling’s governing body.
COME ON, EVERYBODY! It's a very well known fact that the only reason the Athenians and Spartans even participated in the Olympics is for the ticket sales (admission was free) and the TV ratings.
"...citing low ticket sales and TV ratings."
What that REALLY means is that wrestling is not making enough MONEY for the IOC's coffers, so it's gone like a red-headed step-child. Now if they were to have Women's Mud or Jell-O Wrestling, it would be a different story.
They could always add Gangnam Styling to the list of events. Or Rapping or Hip Hip. Maybe if they allowed sponsors to post ads on the bottom of each participant's uniform? Or all over them like NASCAR.
:-P
"This week, the International Olympic Committee dropped wrestling from the 25 core sports that make up the Summer Games, citing low ticket sales and TV ratings."
There it is...it's all about the numbers, and not about the sport itself.Â
@washcomom They actually said it was because of low ticket sales and TV ratings?Â
I revise my comments - the IOC is not only acting like they are on CRACK this week, they are acknowledging they are owned and ruled and prostituted to NBC Sports. Paris Hilton and the Kardashian Sisters should be named to the IOC Board from here on out. Why not?
Ick. Ick. ICK.Â
IOC - cruelly and inexplicably targeting wrestling and actually dropping it? This sport is as old as the Olympics. This sport has opened the mat to include women. Wrestling IS the Olympics.I am incredulous at the blaspheming Olympic Committee's actions.Â
What's next IOC - track and field or swimming will be cut? Sure appears as though that is to be expected. IOC on crack - that's what happened this week.Â
And Oregon's high school wrestlers - competing for their high school titles this week - dream on, athletes. Dream on and dream high. Don't let the "adults" making indefensible wrongful decisions at the IOC - dispirit your dreams or dishonor your sport. Â
Maybe they can push for Rugby. That's another sport that allows guys to grab each other's junk.
@correct And of course they never touch each other on the backside in football.
@oodathunkedAnd have guys call "tight ends" (How do they KNOW?), Wide Receivers, and Ends. LOL! And have a guy bend over in front of you so you can reach down between his legs and grab WHAT? No wonder it's America's most popular sport. ;-)
(But then wrestling has that move where one guy sticks his finger into the bottom of his opponent.)
Oh, that's not right!
Â
a rumour is going around that it will be replaced with a "american idol" type format event. you know, something more "cool and edgy".
@Ken Ling Can people sing while wrestling??
Is it not Greco style wrestling being discontinued that does not really resemble high school wrestling
So, the Olympics is all about ratings. I get it, it's not about sports, it's about money.
I don't care for wrestling at all, personally, but I have to admit this is kind of an insane decision. Wrestling is definitely an Olympic sport, IMO.
This decision is outrageous and unbelievable. It was one of the sports in the original Olympic games. Who is running the Olympics anymore. I think it is NBC and not the Olympic Organizing Committe. And that too is outrageous. Let's home some sane minds intervene and bring back the sport.Â
Unfortunately, wresting is no longer "profitable" for the Olympics. Although it was there when the Olympics were first started in Greece! So much for tradition and history of the games! On the other hand, while wrestling is good for personal skill betterment and improving athletic prowess, what exactly can you do with wrestling later in life? Can you join a professional wrestling team? No! Can you become one of the charlatan professional wrestlers that fake moves and falls? Not really, not unless you bulk up and use some sort of mask or other catchy name; and even then you are not going to make a livelihood at this "game".  Â
@jpk WWE, now that's real Wrasling.
Just another example of what is going on in this sick world. Â Eliminate the good things and replace them with crap than is meaningless because a small minority of weirdos wants it that way. Â If you want to improve the olympics, return to just the events they had thirty or forty years ago and get rid of the new stuff that isn't worth watching.
@ShadowÂ
Oddly enough, there are other people in the world, and they want a say in what makes the Olympics and what doesn't. Â 6 billion souls around the globe; you think maybe some of them aren't exactly like you?
Wrestling is pretty gay. Very awkward to watch.
@TreeWizard If that's the feeling you get watching it, perhaps you need to stay away from it.
Just sayin'
@TreeWizardÂ
So, you should suit up and tell one of these high schoolers that. Â Of course, after they're done tying you into a pretzel knot, you should then apologize so that they don't leave you that way....
@Diogenes @TreeWizard I'll stand by my statement regardless.
@Diogenes @TreeWizard That is the exact reason I carry a rape whistle.
@TreeWizard @DiogenesÂ
Yeah, until you're forcible held down and teabagged by some pimply-faced high school junior....
@Diogenes @TreeWizard I wrestled all throughout high school and was team captain my senior year...and, yes, wresting is pretty gay. Don't believe me? Did you know that in ancient Greece the two participants in a wrestling match wrestled nude and the only people in attendance were men? So tell me: does that sound like an athletic event or gay pornography?
@Diogenes @stephcra @TreeWizard There's a difference between nudity and human sacrifice.
FFS.
@TreeWizard @stephcra @Diogenes Ironically, there probably isn't a human being alive who could stand toe-to-toe with a Spartan athlete trained for war since age 7, and leave with his manhood and dignity intact.
The Persian scouts at Thermopylae were astonished to find the Spartan warriors braiding each others hair, oiling each others bodies and doing calisthenics the mornings before the second and third days of battle.
It was said among the Greeks when one of the two surviving warriors returned to Sparta, his mother threw open her robe and exposed herself, asking him how far he intended to retreat.
Bull sh it, butt funny
@Diogenes @stephcra @TreeWizard No but the uniforms are skin tight. Leave nothing to the imagination. I went to one once, and never went again.
@stephcra @Diogenes @TreeWizardÂ
Yeah, do high school wrestlers now wrestle nude, and are there now only men in attendance? Â Because if we're traipsing through history, the proto-game that became soccer was invented by the Mayans; the losing team captain was killed in a sacrifice to the gods. Â We should start doing that to the Timbers.
@stephcra @Diogenes @TreeWizard I don't think most people know that. lol