SIGN PETITION - As Greeks We Are Obligated To Save Olympic Wrestling!

Greece just received yet another blow from the International Olympic Committee against its  history and culture. Our nation gave the world the Olympic games and this global committee is making a mockery out of the whole event. The latest provocation is a decision to exclude the sport of wrestling which is one of the original sports held during the first ancient games! Here is the latest report as posted by fairsportivesports.

The International Olympic Committee has made a recommendation to remove the sport of wrestling from the 2020 Olympics, despite it being one of the original sports in the ancient Olympic Games in Greece and a part of the first modern Olympic Games in 1896.

Only four other sports - track and field, cycling, gymnastics, and swimming - have been in more Olympic Games. Some may say that wrestling is a dying sport, but the facts say otherwise. For example, the 2012 NCAA Division 1 Wrestling Championships sold an unprecedented 112,000 tickets, and the sport is among the top five NCAA revenue-producing championships boasting four consecutive sellouts.

The sport is popular in more than 200 nations.

Two hundred eighty-five pounder senior Jacob Nelson on the Buena Vista University (BVU) wrestling team commented on the IOC’s recommendation to eliminate wrestling.

“You’re not only taking away a great sport from the USA but many other countries to whom it means way more to,” he said.

There were several reiterations of Nelson’s opinion via Twitter using the hashtag #SaveOlympicWrestling, for example:

“When was the last time the United States, Russia, and Iran agreed on the same thing? They do now. #SaveOlympicWrestling.”

The movement to keep wrestling in the Olympics is gaining alot of momentum. Earlier this week, a poll that intrigued over 35,000 people to vote was conducted on the US sports channel ESPN.com about what sport should be included in the 2020 Olympics. Wrestling received 85.8% of the vote with baseball and softball coming in second with only 6.8% of the vote. The rest of the sports that are being considered include karate, squash, wushu, sport climbing, wakeboarding, and roller sports, combined for a whopping 7.4% of the total vote.

Casey Paprocki, a junior 174-pounder for the Beavers, has his own take on wrestling possibly being replaced by these sports.

“Replacing wrestling with wushu, a sport that has only been around since 1949, would be like removing a lifetime appointee on the Supreme Court to put an 18-year-old high school grad in his place,” he said.

Head Wrestling Coach Sevond Cole also voiced his opinion on wrestling being taken out of the Olympics.

“When you ask a childhood basketball player what they dream of being when they grow up, they say a professional basketball player; same question for a peewee football player: a professional football player. When you ask a wrestler what he wants to be when he grows up, he will say an Olympic champion,” Cole said.

Kids grow up playing many different sports, and almost all allow them to strive to compete on a professional level, except wrestling if it is eliminated from the Olympics. Some feel that without this ultimate possibility of becoming an Olympic champion, the sport of wrestling could eventually suffer with kids deciding to play other sports rather than wrestle.

“Without the promise of your training being able to someday allow you to compete at the elite level of the Olympics, it, in a way, hinders the idea of even competing,” Paprocki added.

It does remain true that even without the ultimate goal of being Olympic champion, wrestlers of all ages would still have the goal of becoming an NCAA National Champion or FILA Wrestling World Champion.

Just because the IOC has recommended that the sport of wrestling be dropped from the 2020 Olympics does not mean that it is a done deal. The next step is for the IOC Executive Board to recommend a sport for the final spot in the 2020 Olympics. Wrestling will be considered for the position along with seven other sports. This recommendation happens in May in St. Petersburg, Russia. Then, the next step is for the entire International Olympic Committee to vote on the final program for the 2020 Olympics, which occurs in September in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Wrestling supporters, including Coach Sevond Cole, are not giving up as he passes this message along to any supporter out there.

“As a wrestling community, we can’t take this sitting down. The fight is not over, and we need anyone that disagrees with this decision to help in our fight,” he said.

Efforts have been made by USA Wrestling, FILA Wrestling, and other organizations to put pressure on the IOC to keep wrestling in the Olympics. If you would like to sign the petition to help their efforts, please go to

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/put-pressure-ioc-overturn-their-decision-drop-wrestling-olympics-2020/ClDPYshl