Olympic Wrestling Brouhaha: "It's golf that should never have been granted access in the first place."
/Dan Wetzel is the first to take the outrage over wrestling's departure from the Olympic Games in 2016 and directly blame golf's inclusion.
Thanks to reader Patrick for what may be the first of several questioning golf's inclusion in light of the surprising decision to end wrestling's run as an original Olympic sport.
In part because golf and rugby are coming to the Olympics, something had to go. This time it was wrestling, apparently edged out by the modern pentathlon for survival.
As such, both freestyle (somewhat similar to what you see in American high schools and colleges) and Greco Roman, each of which dated back to the 1896 Games in Greece, will soon be history. Wrestling can try to get back in, but the odds are long.
This is a poor decision and it would be only slightly less poor of a decision if it was modern pentathlon (a five-event competition of fencing, horse riding, swimming, running and shooting) that got the boot instead.
It's golf that should never have been granted access in the first place.
He goes on to make the case that the best Olympic sports are rare collections of the world gathering to compete. And we know that happens multiple times a year in golf.
**Add WSJ's Jason Gay to the anti-golf group following yesterday's announcement:
And while I enjoy watching golf and playing golf, I need Olympic golf as much as my cat needs a Jacuzzi. And golf does not need the Olympics. At all. Golf already has plenty of high-profile professional platforms, both in terms of individual and international team play.
**AP's Jim Litke on the politics behind wrestling's demise and the inclusion of other sports like golf.
Rather, it's the way the IOC tries to cash in by piggy-backing on formerly taboo pro sports and pandering to whatever demographic holds sway at the moment. That's why the Winter Olympics look more and more like the "X Games," and why basketball, soccer and tennis _ with golf and rugby on the way _ are now "core" sports, even though they're chockfull with paid mercenaries and boast championships way more prestigious than anything the Olympics could offer.
