Olympics to Drop Wrestling

[sonatine]

Shout out to Chaps trying soooooo hard to be relevant.

[limitles]

I have to assume there is more to this than we know.

Wrestling was one of the first Olympic sports.

The only three reasons to dump it I can imagine are:

* that its become a major locus for doping violations and the IOC has basically admitted it will never have the resources to properly police for them (which is 100% true of course)

* there is something in the rules that introduces a bureaucratic overhead to it that they can no longer afford eg something in the appeals process or whatever.

* the scoring criteria are subjective enough to undermine public faith in reasonable/fair results

Its strange because wrestling seemed to be one of the only sports where concerns #2 and #3 werent overwhelmingly obvious.

Its also strange because its such a huge portion of the programming for the Olympics. Real talk; does anyone in the fucking world actually watch water polo coverage? Because as it stands, I seem to recall about 30% of the NBC coverage being water polo this summer. Am I to understand that Im so divorced from contemporary aesthetics that water polo, badmitton, and womens field hockey somehow satisfy the requirements for compelling programming?

Other fun facts that are going to be swept under the rug by media forever:

The IOC is hilariously and notoriously corrupt.

China has absolutely no dece wrestlers, but a bleeding edge state mandated doping program and huge volumes of cash.

Oh whatever. The only people who benefit from the Olympics at all at this point are pharmaceutical labs, American television networks, and IOC committee members.

Having grown up during a period when the Olympics were actually relevant and interesting and not a brazen circus of experimental doping, what we are left with at this point wont be missed if it vanished tomorrow.

Yeah there seems to be more to the story alright.

Word was the Pentathlon was going to be the discipline removed.
Vice president of the International Modern Pentathlon Union is Juan Antonio Samaranch Salisach, the son of former IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch.

Modern pentathlon consists of pistol shooting, fencing, 200 m freestyle swimming, show jumping, and a 3 km cross-country run

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_pentathlon

[sonatine]

So basically in 10 years the Olympics is going to consist of Guitar Hero, Speed Twittering, and Who Wins The Most Grammys.

Awesome.

[sonatine]

Oh and womens field hockey.

[DJ_Chaps]

I have to assume there is more to this than we know.

Wrestling was one of the first Olympic sports.

The only three reasons to dump it I can imagine are:

* that its become a major locus for doping violations and the IOC has basically admitted it will never have the resources to properly police for them (which is 100% true of course)

* there is something in the rules that introduces a bureaucratic overhead to it that they can no longer afford eg something in the appeals process or whatever.

* the scoring criteria are subjective enough to undermine public faith in reasonable/fair results

Its strange because wrestling seemed to be one of the only sports where concerns #2 and #3 werent overwhelmingly obvious.

Its also strange because its such a huge portion of the programming for the Olympics. Real talk; does anyone in the fucking world actually watch water polo coverage? Because as it stands, I seem to recall about 30% of the NBC coverage being water polo this summer. Am I to understand that Im so divorced from contemporary aesthetics that water polo, badmitton, and womens field hockey somehow satisfy the requirements for compelling programming?

Other fun facts that are going to be swept under the rug by media forever:

The IOC is hilariously and notoriously corrupt.

China has absolutely no dece wrestlers, but a bleeding edge state mandated doping program and huge volumes of cash.

Oh whatever. The only people who benefit from the Olympics at all at this point are pharmaceutical labs, American television networks, and IOC committee members.

Having grown up during a period when the Olympics were actually relevant and interesting and not a brazen circus of experimental doping, what we are left with at this point wont be missed if it vanished tomorrow.

Wow, speaking of trying to be relevant. Except with you, you're also trying very hard to stay below 300 lbs. Tough gig.

[Lannister]

Shout out to Chaps trying soooooo hard to be relevant.

The little guy is trying his best, have to give him that.

[Lannister]

I just ran a search on all DJ Chaps recent threads to see if I recognized him in any way or if maybe he really was relevant.

http://pokerfraudalert.com/forum/sho...ext-week-or-so

Turns out that he's just a faggot that begs for $5 and promises back 'juice' ... LMFAO

[LLL]

I just ran a search on all DJ Chaps recent threads to see if I recognized him in any way or if maybe he really was relevant.

http://pokerfraudalert.com/forum/sho...ext-week-or-so

Turns out that he's just a faggot that begs for $5 and promises back 'juice' ... LMFAO

Chaps is a 1st ballot HOF poster. Inducted for his legendary shoot videos alone.

[simpdog]

Chaps can you do a shoot on jasep and post it to the thread?

[Walter Sobchak]

It's only been in the Olympics 2700 years, not like it means anything. Why don't they just level the Parthenon and put a McDonald's there instead and call it a day?

Olympics are starting to suck. Or maybe not just starting.

Curling rules.

Water polo only good for the high frequency of nipple slips.

They need synchronized fucking.

[The_PHA]

Don Gabel, a amateur wrestler from the 70s won like 100 straight matches only to lose his last match was on talk radio this morning, not sure the show.

Anyway, he really did not blame the IOC. He said, the powers in Amateur Wrestling basically always took the position that Wrestling was always part of the Olympics and it was not going anywhere. They basically looked down on the IOC. Well we know how that turned out when they voted.

He said the reason Golf made it over Wrestling was because of the way they focus on TV, in that Golf shows the great shots, great misses, but does not focus on the players walking to each shot, which would be a bore. Whereas Olympic Wrestling shows every single hold even if nothing happens.

He basically said the sport is too boring to watch in a 21 Century model and they need to make changes on how it is viewed on TV, and they will be back. It was pretty refreshing, I thought he was going to come on ranting but he basically said they got left behind by their own fault.

[4Dragons]

It's only been in the Olympics 2700 years, not like it means anything. Why don't they just level the Parthenon and put a McDonald's there instead and call it a day?

Olympics are starting to suck. Or maybe not just starting.

Curling rules.

Water polo only good for the high frequency of nipple slips.

They need synchronized fucking.

The sex olympics from the movie 'Groove Tube' comes to mind.

[Walter Sobchak]

It's only been in the Olympics 2700 years, not like it means anything. Why don't they just level the Parthenon and put a McDonald's there instead and call it a day?

Olympics are starting to suck. Or maybe not just starting.

Curling rules.

Water polo only good for the high frequency of nipple slips.

They need synchronized fucking.

The sex olympics from the movie 'Groove Tube' comes to mind.

I'm showing my age here but there was a porno from the 70s that revolved around a sex competition shown on "Wide World of Spurts" where the announcers yellow jackets and it really resembled ABC's Wide World of Sports production values. Members of the bush patrol would have been in heaven seein this, I wonder if a clip is available online anywhere I am too lazy to look.

[sonatine]

Don Gabel, a amateur wrestler from the 70s won like 100 straight matches only to lose his last match was on talk radio this morning, not sure the show.

Anyway, he really did not blame the IOC. He said, the powers in Amateur Wrestling basically always took the position that Wrestling was always part of the Olympics and it was not going anywhere. They basically looked down on the IOC. Well we know how that turned out when they voted.

He said the reason Golf made it over Wrestling was because of the way they focus on TV, in that Golf shows the great shots, great misses, but does not focus on the players walking to each shot, which would be a bore. Whereas Olympic Wrestling shows every single hold even if nothing happens.

He basically said the sport is too boring to watch in a 21 Century model and they need to make changes on how it is viewed on TV, and they will be back. It was pretty refreshing, I thought he was going to come on ranting but he basically said they got left behind by their own fault.

Legitimately interesting opinion right there.

[sonatine]

It's only been in the Olympics 2700 years, not like it means anything. Why don't they just level the Parthenon and put a McDonald's there instead and call it a day?

Olympics are starting to suck. Or maybe not just starting.

Curling rules.

Water polo only good for the high frequency of nipple slips.

They need synchronized fucking.

The sex olympics from the movie 'Groove Tube' comes to mind.

When I was a kid, I was pretty sure my adult life was going to be like the skit "The Dealers" and the less realistic that became, the less happy I became.

[vegas1369]

Wrestling must have a shitty lobby if they aloud this to happen.

This is exactly why as of right now it is out.

As PHA said earlier, it is their own fault. Can't blame them for looking down on the IOC though, they are the biggest running joke of any governing body in sports ATM. I think they will have to rethink their position on this one though, there are way too many other sports that need to go over one of the longest running events in Olympic history. Only these idiots would even consider getting rid of wrestling.