Wrestling out from Olympics!

[Masoud_A]

its just more ways of trying to weed out less fortunate countries to win medals....so the big powers can rack up medals

You mean Russia and US?

[palangheTM]

Iran Greco-Roman coach Jazini quits

07 March 2013

Iran Greco-Roman coach Rasool Jazini stepped down as his post on Wednesday. Jazini replaced Mohammad Bana in January. Bana officially resigned from his post after the 2012 Olympic Games, saying that Iran Wrestling Federation is facing serious financial problems and it cannot fulfill the players' needs. Jazini led Iran to the final of the 2013 World Cup Greco-Roman Championship in Tehran in late February, where the team lost to Russia. Jazini has not revealed the reason for his withdrawal.

[EKBATAN]

its just more ways of trying to weed out less fortunate countries to win medals....so the big powers can rack up medals

[Mr.Click]

They're turning this into pure business,.. It shouldn't be based on popularity, rather originality and availability and ease of practice globally.. Anybody in the world can wrestle, the ORIGINAL Olympic sport which the images of are engraved in the ancient Greek walls.. by taking wrestling out they're taking the big chunk of Olympics culture out too, while keeping sports like golf, baseball, softball, and zillion classes of sailing, shooting, swimming, gymnastics,...
so they want the new generation to relate to the Olympics through baseball and golf rather than wrestling..
they must be on drugs

[Zamboor]

the olympics is about michael phelps getting to swim in 50 swim competitions to beat records that were made just for him.

[Sharkie]

The Olympic Games have become such a joke. Instead of keeping our traditions alive, we throw it away and incorporate temporary fads that will lose its thunder eventually. What a disgrace!

[palangheTM]

FILA acting president invited to Iran

[radin119]

^ wow right after i posted that i searched around and the times actually had an article about it

http://rendezvous.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/13/remember-ping-pong-diplomacy-what-about-wrestling-diplomacy/

[radin119]

could be see wrestling diplomacy just like we saw ping pong diplomacy?

[mayhem]

US, Russia, Iran join hands for Olympic Wrestling

I'm in support of any military invasion of the countries involved with the decision.

[radin119]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/olympics/2013/02/14/olympic-wrestling-us-russia-iran/1921527/

[hzv]

US, Russia, Iran join hands for Olympic Wrestling




Washington, Feb 16 (IANS/RIA Novosti) The United States and Russia have grappled over Iran's nuclear ambitions in recent years, but the three nations are now joining forces for the right to keep on grappling in the Olympics after International Olympic Committee (IOC) officials recommended scrapping the ancient sport of wrestling this week.

"We must form a coalition of the willing, so to speak, that will come together at some point to support the cause," Rich Bender, executive director of USA Wrestling, the sport's body in the United States, told RIA Novosti Friday.

Bender said he spoke by telephone with senior Russian wrestling official Georgy Bryusov Thursday and that he has held telephone talks with Iranian wrestling federation executives as well.

Bender is to leave Monday for Tehran, where US wrestlers are set to compete in the 2013 Freestyle World Cup and where he plans to discuss a plan of action with his Iranian counterparts and representatives from other national federations.

"Many of the other wrestling powers will be there," said Bender. "My hope is that this coalition will start to form very swiftly."

The IOC's executive board announced this week its recommendation that wrestling not be included in the 2020 Summer Olympics, a proposal that, if ratified by the IOC in September, would eliminate a sport that had endured from the ancient Olympic Games through every modern Olympic competition since the movement's revival in 1896.

The United States and Iran have not had formal diplomatic relations for more than three decades, and US-Russia ties have arguably reached their nadir since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

A recently enacted US law called the Magnitsky Act places sanctions on Russian officials deemed by the White House to be complicit in rights abuses, and Moscow retaliated by banning Americans from adopting Russian children.

The two nations also remain divided over how to respond to the raging civil war in Syria and Tehran's pursuit of expanded nuclear capabilities.

But geopolitical grappling has little place in the wrestling world, Bender said.

"Obviously we're fierce competitors on the mat, but we're family off it. Obviously that's the great beauty of our sport - that it transcends politics. We join together as wrestlers."

Bryusov, first vice president of the Russian Wrestling Federation, could not immediately be reached for comment Friday.

But the federation issued a statement Thursday calling on national federations to "unite forces" to rescue wrestling's place at the Olympics.

IOC President Jacques Rogge said this week that he would meet with the leadership of FILA, international wrestling's governing body, to discuss the sport's fate.

"I should say FILA reacted well to this disheartening news for them," Rogge told a news conference Wednesday.

"They vowed to adapt the sport and vowed to fight to be eventually included in the 2020 slot."

[palangheTM]

The FILA Bureau nominated Mr. Nenad Lalovic (SRB) as acting President. In accordance with the the FILA Constitution, an extraordinary Congress may be called by the Bureau or by at least one third of the affiliated National Federations in order to ratify the Bureau's decision or appoint another acting President. Mr. Martinetti hopes that this situation will help save wrestling and thanks all National Federations for their unfailing support throughout his term as FILA President since 2020. Mr. Martinetti also wishes plenty of success to Mr. Lalovic for the mission that now rests in his hands.

[palangheTM]

Wrestling president Raphael Martinetti quits after Olympic omission

FILA to comment later Saturday

[EKBATAN]

wow apparently the head of the US federation (or vice chair) is going to iran in order to start some sort of lobby with the iranian and russian federation

yea it makes sense....the federations of Iran, US, russia and all the power houses of wrestling are very close to each other. They deal with each other all the time cuz of all the tournaments and like i said earlier, the freestyle world cup is coming up next week in Iran anyways...so im sure he'll combine trips


i really hope to see some decent wrestling coverage on ESPN cuz of this