IOC and The Olympics: Rotting From the Inside Out
IOC and The Olympics: Rotting From the Inside Out
IOC and The Olympics: Rotting From the Inside Out
Willie Saylor, Editor
Willie Saylor, Editor
Beyond the shortsightedness of the 15-person muppet crew that voted to oust wrestling from the Olympics on Tuesday, the decision itself signals a broader malady. Most look at the decision on the surface and question the mental fortitude of the committee members. But, like all power plays, there's something more devious behind their motives. The IOC has resorted to what amounts to extortion and Tuesday's vote just exemplifies the cancerous nature of the Modern Day Olympic Mission as set forth by the current IOC administration.
Even the most objective assessors, even those outside of wrestling and with no connection to the sport would agree that wrestling is the embodiment of what the Olympic Games is supposed to represent. Our offices, which house staff that cover track and field, gymnastics, and cycling, were filled with chatter the last two days, not because they were invested in wrestling, but because the thought of it’s removal from the Olympics is counterintuitive and unconscionable.
From professional sports writers to social media quips, examples are a plenty. Here’s a succinct personal favorite, from Dan Bigman of Forbes, ‘By killing wrestling, a sport that has appeared in every game since 1896, the dullards who man the programming calendar at the IOC are going further than they ever have before in showing that they don’t understand their product (and that’s a ways).’
Not to saturate you with sources or links, but this one from the New York Times is a gem that serves as cliff notes of sorts into the absurdity of the decision.
It just doesn’t make sense to anyone with a brain or a beating heart. But for the sake of sanity, let’s go through a set of standards from different angles to sort this all out.
What Are the Modern Olympics About?
Are the Olympics important because they’re simply the Olympics? What exactly are the Olympics anymore? What is the Olympic mission? It seems their very own skeletal structure is becoming decrepit.
What really is the IOC’s objective? Is it to celebrate global athletics or is it to make money? Is it to offer a consistent representation of excellence in physical achievement or to succumb to the world of ‘what’s trendy’? Making money in and of itself isn’t a bad thing if your vision and mission stay true. Which, beyond being upsetting for wrestling fans, spells doom for the Olympics in general. When your chief goal is money and not the product, it’s the beginning of the end.
Wrestling’s Global Import
71 countries were represented in Wrestling at the Olympic Games in London. That trailed only Track and Field (201), and Swimming (166), and was ahead of Gymnastics (46). Considering Wrestling has just 18 events (7 male Freestyle, 4 Women’s Freestyle, and 7 male Greco Roman), having 71 countries represented is a wildly encouraging example of diversification and global popularity. T&F had 48 events, while Swimming staged 34 and Gymnastics 15.
Inasmuch as wrestling’s diversity should appeal to the IOC powers-that-be, its parity should be evidence of competitive athletes all over the globe. In the four pillars of the Summer Games, Wrestling’s parity was by far the best of any sport, seeing a whopping 29 nations earn one of its 72 medals (a ratio of .40). Compare that to other traditional Olympic staples: Track: 41 countries, 144 medals (.28); Gymnastics: 15 nations, 54 medals (.27); and Swimming only: 19 countries, 102 medals (.18).
Sport Countries Total Countries Parity
Represented Medals to Medal Ratio
Wrestling 71 72 29 .40
Track 201 144 41 .28
Gymnastics 46 54 15 .27
Swimming 166 102 19 .18
No Comparison to The World’s Oldest Sport
Quite honestly, to look at the ‘sports’ that are included in the Games, and to compare them to wrestling, well, it kind of makes you chuckle. I hate to denigrate other ‘athletes’ (some of which are, literally, horses) or so-called sports, but the time to be nice is over.
There are sports currently on the Olympic docket that just don’t make sense or fall parallel to what any rational sentient being would expect the Olympic movement to be.
Let’s use the Olympic’s own self-proclaimed criterion. Go to the Official Olympic Website. Click on “Olympism” and you find terms like “Sport for All” and “Development Through Sport”. But look at the following examples. Is there any sense of equality, global-ness, or universality among them?
BMX and Trampoline - Spare us. Please tell me you’re not reducing the Summer Olympics to X Games status.
Pentathlon - They try to slip “Modern” in as its first name. But it’s a stale, archaic event with no real world application or global interest or traction.
Equestrian and Dressage - an aristocratic sport which the mass of human beings across the globe couldn’t come close to affording or competing in. It doesn’t help their rationale for inclusion that there’s an animal doing all the work.
Other notable anomalies include Speed Walking and Synchronized Swimming, neither of which is dignified enough to demand a response, let alone a place in the Olympics.
Fila Failure
Last weekend, there were murmurs that wrestling was on the chopping block. When the decision was published Monday, the ensuing statement from FILA was one of disbelief. Fila President, Raphael Martinetti stated they were ‘blindsided’ by the decision. So here’s the question: if there were message board posts and chatter among the wrestling community prior to the vote, why was FILA blindsided? Did they not do anything proactive to cut the decision off at the pass? A rhetorical question. Of course they didn’t.
Russian Wrestling Federation leader, Mikhail Mamishvili felt it was well within Martinetti’s grasp, as well as his duty, to make this a non-issue beforehand. Mamishvili went as far as to question Martinetti’s competence. And wrestling enthusiasts around the globe should too.
Consider this - Modern Olympic Pentathlon beat us out. Really? Really.
By all accounts pentathlon supporters were extremely organized and made a push to remain on the Olympic calendar. Of course, it helped that it’s chief advocate Juan Antonio Samaranch, Jr. is a current IOC board member whose legacy and IOC savviness goes back to his father, who was once the IOC President.
On the flip side, and although an anonymous IOC member just today came out and publicly said that the governing bodies of Pentathlon and taekwondo did effective lobbying while FILA sat idle, should they really have to?
Who in their right mind would think that wrestling, perhaps the Olympics most sovereign and beloved sports, would ever be in danger?
And who would think it incumbent upon each and every sport to pander to the IOC at every turn? Is it now a prerequisite for each and every sport’s governing body to supplicate the IOC before every Olympic cycle?
Is the Joke on Us?
In a way, I feel duped. The above essay is a futile and circuitous route to arriving at the heart of the issue. The inclusion of wrestling in to the Olympics is a no-brainer. But the wheels are turning in my head. There’s salient points. There’s rational comparisons to other sports. There’s research in to participation. All this to come to a conclusion that is so clear to the rest of the human species outside of the 15-person IOC committee who voted against wrestling on Monday. In no rubric within the Olympic mission would wrestling be on the outside looking in. In no rubric would any other sport supersede wrestling in Olympic stature.
The utter disbelief and, in turn, the efforts to rationalize it, obfuscates what this is all about: money.
Let’s not get it twisted. The IOC wants a payoff from Fila and from the big money wrestling aficionados that support the sport around the globe. American entrepreneurs that fronted the “Living the Dream” fund in the U.S. Wealthy tycoons in Russia. Oil barons in the Middle East that just so happen to be the best emerging wrestling powers (Iran took 3rd as a nation in London).
And the ploy worked like a charm. Without getting in to specifics, the aforementioned wrestling benefactors immediately began fund raising for this fight.
The problem is, the Olympics are not a democracy. There exists no checks and balances system for them outside of the IOC Board Members’ own bank accounts. They are a private enterprise operating not with the preservation of tradition or the sanctity of global stewardship, but with the impunity of a modern day financial monopoly.
Wrestling just so happens to be most popular in the nation’s wealthiest regions. The U.S. Eastern Europe. Now the Middle East. And with burgeoning markets in China (the world’s most populous nation), India (its second), and Japan. These governments and Olympic Committees will almost certainly lobby for wrestling to remain in the Olympics going forward and with a strong push in May and September when the IOC reconvenes. Don’t for one second think the IOC didn’t recognize this. And don’t for one second think it’s not a calculated move. They’re banking on (literally) financial contribution and lobbyist dollars from these nations and filtered through FILA with the pretense that wrestling would be cut otherwise. Which is precisely why in the statement following the vote, IOC spokesman Mark Adams made a point to say, ‘This is not a final decision.’ Read between the lines: ‘Pony up, FILA!’
It’s all about the money. Exactly what the Olympics aren't supposed to be about. When we see this, we know we're witnessing the Games rotting from the inside out.
A RUNNING LIST OF MEDIA OUTRAGE OVER THE IOC DECISION
A RUNNING LIST OF MEDIA OUTRAGE OVER THE IOC DECISION