13 Feb 2013

IOC votes to axe wrestling from Games

12:27 pm on 13 February 2013

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has made a surprise recommendation on Tuesday to drop the wrestling from the 2020 Games.

Contested in the first modern Olympics in 1896 and part of the ancient Games in Olympia, wrestling will now join seven other candidate sports battling for one spot in a revamped programme.

It is unlikely that it will get a reprieve when the IOC session in Buenos Aires votes on the recommendation in September, Reuters reports.

"This is not the end of the process, this is purely a recommendation," IOC spokesman Mark Adams told reporters following an Executive Board meeting.

The vote came as a major surprise after other sports, including modern pentathlon and taekwondo, were seen as at risk of losing out due to their lower global appeal.

In a statement, international wrestling federation FILA said it was "greatly astonished" by the recommendation.

It said the federation was represented in 180 countries and described decision as an aberration against one of the founding sports of the ancient and modern Olympic Games.

Board members were given a report on each of the Olympic sports which provided details on 39 criteria such as popularity, finances, tickets sold and governance, before a secret vote.

IOC sources told Reuters that in the secret ballot there were four sports battling to avoid the cut: field hockey, modern pentathlon, taekwondo and wrestling.

The IOC said 25 of the 26 Olympic sports were elected as core sports for the 2020 Games which will also include rugby and golf, making their first appearance in 2016.

Wrestling joins baseball and softball, making a joint bid, martial arts karate and wushu, rollersports, wakeboarding, squash and sports climbing as candidates for the one empty spot.

Baseball and softball were taken off the programme in 2005.

The IOC executive board will meet in St Petersburg in May to determine which of these will be put to the vote in September.