by Y-Chromosome Wed Jul 29, 2015 4:37 am
A number of things would have to happen before this could ever be a reality. First there would need to be a single strong centralised International Federation formed with broad participation of National governing bodies from across the world including all five continents. That Federation would need to seek recognition as an IF and meet certain criteria, including:
"The statutes, practice and activities of the IFs within the Olympic Movement must be in
conformity with the Olympic Charter, including the adoption and implementation of the
World Anti-Doping Code. Subject to the foregoing, each IF maintains its independence and
autonomy in the administration of its sport."
Next it would need to convince the IOC and a host country to include it in the programme of a specific Olympic games. The IOC is presently imposing strict limits on the number of Sports, events and athletes to keep the size and cost of the games manageable and some would argue they are laready betyond manageable. Given the fact that Wrestling was nearly cut and that the IJF seems to live in constant fear of being cut, I wouldn't give additional compative sports great chances.
Each weight class would be considered an event, and if you wanted to inlcude men and women that adds a lot of events which then need a venue. Possibly the same venue as wrestling, but that stretches the schedule for that venue.
To compare a similar case, SAMBO tried to get into the Olympics by using the existing Wrestling organization FILA as their IF and promoting SAMBO as another set of events within FILAs programme. (FILA already did Freestyle and Greco Roman Wrestling, and now men's and women's wrestling). That effort failed and SAMBO never even got close to an Olympic spot due to its failure to generate enough participation outside of Eastern Europe. Karate and Wushu have been "recognized" by the IOC for some time, but neither has succesfully managed to be included in a games.
So I would say BJJ has an uphill battle if it ever wants to be in the Olympics.
All that said, I for one wouldn't mind, but if the current trend of capping participation holds there would be pressure to drop something. Maybe judo, maybe Greco-Roman wrestling, maybe something else. It would be interesting to see maybe another event set be organised within the IJF. Maybe call it "Kosen style" Judo or "Freestyle" Judo, with more lattitude permitted to grab the legs, more time permitted on the ground and maybe leg locks permitted. Sadly there is also an uphill battle to be fought for this. This time within the IJF. Moreover that wouldn't necessarily attract a lot of BJJers, who as I understand it, are allergic to the ippon throw. Whatever rule changes you made, you can't really call it judo without the ippon throw.
Look, BJJ and Judo are close technical cousins but have diverged culturally and technically for a variety of reasons. I'm not particularly happy with the present rules of either, but I'll watch both as the opportunity arises and enjoy a good match either way.
The big questions revolve around politics and organization and in that regard Judo has the drop on the BJJ by a good 50 years. That's a lot of catching up to do in an environment where the IJF is loathe to add a single event, let alone 7 weight classes each for two genders.