If you know anything about history, you know the ancient Greeks were always finding some reason to fight each other.
Whether it was stealing each other’s wives or taking land from the neighboring city-state, the Greeks were always trying to find a way to prove they were better than each other.
Finally in 776 B.C.E., the Greeks found a way to prove they were better without killing each other. Today we know these competitions as the Olympic Games.
In the original Olympic Games, ancient Greek athletes competed in feats of strength and endurance such as foot and chariot races and discus and javelin throwing, but the crowning event of the Olympic Games was wrestling.
Wrestling was the ultimate test of endurance and strength and ultimately proving complete dominance over another person.
It was also the first non-running event added to the Olympic Games and was held in high regard in ancient Greek society, being represented in Greek mythology by Hercules.
Since then, wrestling has become a staple of the Olympic Games, making an appearance in every set of games since the Olympic revival in 1896.
While wrestling here in America has become mostly associated with steroid muscle heads in tight spandex pants jumping off of top rope and hitting each other with chairs, it’s not the same everywhere.
In the rest of the world, wrestling is a serious sport that requires hours of dedicated practice and work.
Despite being such an integral part of the Olympic Games, a few weeks ago the International Olympic Committee announced that the event would be dropped from the 2020 Olympics.
The IOC said their main reason for dropping wrestling from the games is to make the Olympics more appealing to younger audiences by introducing and putting emphasis on more widely-followed sports, and the removal of wrestling was merely a part of a larger ”process of renewing and renovating the program for the Olympics.”
I can understand the IOC wanting to renew the games to make it relevant to younger audiences, but why wrestling? Of all the sports that can be taken out of the Olympics, wrestling was the last sport I thought would be touched.
Wrestling embodies all of the qualities the Olympic Games have come to represent, incorporating a perfect balance of physical strength, endurance and mental sharpness, but apparently the IOC seems to think the sport doesn’t belong in the games.
By removing wrestling from the Olympic Games, the IOC is focusing too much on being relevant and forgetting about the true meaning of the games.
The games are about the world community coming together and competing in physical activities in the spirit of sportsmanship and brotherhood, not whether or not it is popular among the younger viewers.
The removal has caused a massive uproar and has sparked many different petitions to return wrestling to the Olympics.
Hopefully the IOC will change their minds and bring back wrestling to the games, because once they start down the slippery slope to relevance, it is hard to recover and the meaning of the Olympic Games will be lost forever.
