wrestling ghosts

All right, pop quiz. What’s the difference between freestyle wrestling and greco-roman?
In February 2013 the International Olympic Committee voted to remove wrestling from the list of core Olympic sports. Japan is one of the strongest wrestling nations at the Olympics and in Japan this was seen as part of a deliberate and continuing attack on Japan and Japanese sport. Baseball and softball were removed from the Olympics for 2012. Both sports in which Japan usually wins a medal. And now wrestling.
Removing baseball and softball is difficult to justify. They are popular sports played and watched by many, many people of all ages all over the world. But wrestling is different. The number of active participants is small. They are mostly school students. Spectators are mostly wrestlers and their parents. The rules are unfathomable. (What is that guy doing on his hands and knees?). So for the 2020 Olympics wrestling will have to compete with baseball/softball, karate, roller sports, sport climbing, squash, wakeboarding and wushu. What will be the deciding factor? The number of people who play the sport? The number of people who watch the sport? Or the number of sponsors who are prepared to pay to be associated with the sport?
Judo was introduced in 1964 when the Olympics were held in Tokyo. Taekwondo was introduced as a demonstration sport in 1988 when the Olympics were held in Seoul. So if Tokyo is awarded the 2020 Olympics there might be a chance for karate. There are different styles of karate which is why it has not been attractive as an Olympic sport. If karate and taekwondo could come to some agreement over common rules the sports could be combined for international competitions. I am quite sure that will happen in the next few decades.
Judo itself is probably in danger. Modern judo is mostly not very interesting to watch. And the rules are difficult to understand. At the February 2013 Judo Grand Prix in Düsseldorf many matches were decided by penalties. That was not a good sign. So the judo world too should be thinking creatively. Judo is wrestling with jackets. Jackets are useful. They allow easy gripping, dynamic throws and good control. You can even use jackets in ground techniques. When Olympic judo gold medallist Hidehiko Yoshida started mixed martial arts fighting he wore a judogi. He wanted to keep the option of using his own jacket. And he choked out Royce Gracie with sode guruma jime.
So if wrestlers could be persuaded to wear jackets a universal sport of jacket wrestling could be introduced for competitions. The best of wrestling, judo and sambo. Sambo is a Russian martial art. It already has some similarities with judo and some people have excelled in both. Katsuhiko Kashiwazaki was a world judo champion and also a world sambo champion. By the way he was a superb judo newaza technician. You can check out how he expertly used a jacket to wrap up his opponent’s wrist in the video below.
So we would be down to one sport for kicking and striking and one sport for wrestling with jackets. Then we could get to work on horse sports, rowing, paddling and sailing sports, cycling, diving, basketball, tennis, golf… The Olympics could look more like the Universiade. It has only 13 main sports.
The evaluation commission of the International Olympic Committee came to Tokyo at the beginning of March 2013. Stations in Tokyo were covered in Tokyo 2020 posters and tv commercials promoting Tokyo 2020 were showing in the trains. The advertising campaign strongly featured some of Japan’s Olympic medallists from London 2012. Mostly it looked like wrestling. You know, the sport that won’t be at the 2020 Olympics.
Oh yes. The answer to the pop quiz. “Shoot the hostage!” (Keanu Reeves, Speed). Wrestling has only got itself to blame. Judo you’re next.
niall

Niall: “So we would be down to one sport for kicking and striking and one sport for wrestling with jackets. Then we could get to work on horse sports, rowing, paddling and sailing sports, cycling, diving, basketball, tennis, golf… The Olympics could look more like the Universiade. It has only 13 main sports.”

FightingSpirit wrote:
In some regards it would appear that Niall might be one of the bureaucrats guilty of this sort of flawed logic, while in others it would seem that he is simply being facetious…
The obvious flawed logic in such bureaucratic type thinking for one sport for kicking, striking and wrestling would follow with similar logic that we would only need one type of diving, only one sport that involves a ball, only one type of water-boating sport, one sport that is played on a court, only one type of gymnastics (canx rhythmic), only one type of swimming (canx synchronized) etc…