Was It a Lack of Steel Chairs?

The IOC dropped a bombshell today. The committee announced that they were removing the wrestling program from the 2020 Olympics.

The biggest shock of this news is how established wrestling is within the Olympic community. It has been apart of the games since they were re-introduced to the modern world in 1896. Oh, and it was part of the original Olympic dating back to 708 BC.

In an article on TSN.ca, IOC spokesman said that the process was conducted by secret ballot.

Seven sports - including wrestling - will be campaigning to be added to the 2020 games now. The other sports are baseball and softball, karate, squash, roller sports, sport climbing, wakeboarding, and wushu (Kung Fu).

Don't get me wrong. I've never really been into this kind of wrestling. Give me some entrance music, a Titantron, and some steel chairs any day of the week.

But really? This is one of the founding sports of the Olympics. It has tradition dating all the way back to Ancient Greece. Removing this sport feels like the IOC is removing some credibility from the Olympics. They are removing a huge part of the history of the Olympics.

Is this a move to try to make the Olympics culturally relevant? Adding something like wakeboarding or whatever roller sports is makes that seem like a possibility. But there are many other sports that could be removed in its place that would still keep the Olympic tradition alive.