Olympics to Eliminate Wrestling

I find it ironic that the day AFTER I mention that pole dancing might be added to the Olympics as early as 2020, that we all find out that wrestling will most likely be eliminated from the Olympics by 2020 to make room for "more sports."

Now we all know that the Olympics ceased being a showcase for real sports a long time ago. The first time synchronized ANYTHING was added with full medals we lost the sports aspect of the Olympic games.

But wrestling? Wasn't it wrestling and track and field events that STARTED the Olympic games?

We live in a different world today. The vast majority of Olympic viewers are now women, women who normally do not watch anything called sports unless it involves ice skating or gymnastics. Those viewers, especially in prime time, are what give networks their billions of dollars in investment back.

Oddly enough, women do not want to watch smelly guys in singlets rolling around on the mat. They would rather watch beautiful girls in leotards perform to music. Not so oddly, guys would rather watch cute women than smelly men as well. (IF it were PRO wrestling, that would be different.)

What I find most interesting is that women's' Olympic wrestling had only been introduced just a couple of Olympics ago. THAT move made no sense at all. Where hundreds of thousands of men compete worldwide in amatuer wrestling, only a few HUNDRED women do it. There was no great need or call for women's wrestling at any level. It was only added to somehow add gender equality to something that did not need it.

The same could be said for women's boxing. Though you could probably make a case for any boxing at this point. There is a waning interest in it worldwide.

IF I were in charge?

The first sports I'd get rid of are any involving animals. Equestrian comes to mind, but so does the "modern" pentathalon. What kind of sport involves a horse, a gun, a pool, and SWORDS for crying out loud? Since it's HUMAN competition we should be able to get rid of any sport involving horses.

Next? I mentioned it earlier. Synchronized anything. It was bad enough when they had synchronized swimming, but then they added synchronized TEAM swimming, and synchronized TEAM rhythmic gymnastics, and synchronized diving... and...

...well you get the idea. ONE person doing something better than someone else MAY be a sport, but two people doing the same thing together, mirroring each other IS NOT. Dance? Exhibition? Performance ART? I'll give you that. Sport? Hardly.

Did you know that Taekwondo AND Judo are both SEPARATE Olympic sports? 99% of sports fans don't either. I say get rid of at least one of them and make the others compete in the one that is left.

What about race walking? The person who WALKS the fastest gets a gold medal? How about he becomes a runner and sees if he's still fast enough to compete? We might as well have the one-leg hopping event.

Trampoline is also a sport now. Get rid of it.

I could go on and on, but you get the idea. (I'm still trying to figure out WHO invented team handball.) The more "sports" that require judges and scoring, the less we'll see real competition. We're now a society that lives on seeing people "voted off" and voted out of competitions. We like judging people and critiquing people. The new Olympic "sports" make that part of the show so much more enjoyable to the average viewer. You know the viewers who normally don't watch sports.