COMMENTARY: One Idiotic Idea

Olympics Decision Rallies Wrestlers

Monday, February 25, 2013

About 200,000 years ago, two Neanderthals were devouring the flesh from a dead woolly mammoth when both reached simultaneously for the last piece.

A fight quickly followed, and the two rolled around in the dirt until one Neanderthal pinned the other to the ground. The winner raised his fist in triumph and walked away with the last piece of meat clenched between his teeth.

That’s how wrestling began, and the ancient Greeks enjoyed it so much they turned it into a popular sport. Wrestling was also one of the original sports in the first modern Olympic Games in 1896.

So, you can imagine the furor when the International Olympic Committed recommended dropping the sport from the Olympics beginning in 2020. The backlash has been swift and the criticism harsh.

In Arkansas, high school wrestling has gained a foothold after becoming a sanctioned sport in 2008. Large crowds watched the fifth annual state wrestling tournament over the weekend in Little Rock where 44 teams were divided into two classes. Bentonville won the championship in Class 7A while Rogers High was third and defending champ Springdale Har-Ber seventh.

Although the competition was the primary focus, the IOC’s action last week was still a hot topic.

“By taking away wrestling, the IOC just shattered a little boy’s or girl’s dream of becoming an Olympic champion,” Har-Ber coach Nika West said. “But I don't feel that it will hurt the sport from growing in our state. Wrestlers are known for a good work ethic, and I think we, as a wrestling community, will have to work even harder to help the IOC understand the importance of this great sport.”

It is mind-boggling the IOC committee wants to drop wrestling and keep events such as badminton, beach volleyball and synchronized swimming. I can understand the attraction of watching women playing volleyball in essentially a bikini, but synchronized swimming may be the silliest event ever.

Which begs the question: If a swimmer gets a leg cramp and starts sinking to the bottom, does her partner have to sink to the bottom as well or risk losing points?

Hopefully, the IOC’s decision won’t slow the growth of high school wrestling in Arkansas. But that organization did the wrestling community no favors by proclaiming the sport is no longer important enough to be included on the world’s biggest stage.

You can’t spell “idiotic” without the letters IOC.

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RICK FIRES IS A SPORTS WRITER FOR NWA MEDIA.