Today, at its meeting in St Petersburg, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Executive Board will decide the short list of sports for the 2020 Olympics.
It is expected that three sports will be put forward by the Executive Board for a final decision by the full IOC Session in Buenos Aires, Argentina on 7th September 2013.
The Executive Board will be choosing from eight sports: Wrestling; Baseball/softball; Squash; Karate; Rollersports; Sports climbing; Wakeboarding; Wushu (martial arts)
Wrestling in the UK was given platforms to make the case for the sport by Radio 5 live, both on Nicky Campbell and Clare McDonnell’s Breakfast Show and Victoria Derbyshire Show, mid-morning.
The Breakfast Show sent sports presenters Rachel Burden and George Riley to have a go at all eight sports.
Rachel and George had an introduction to wrestling at Bolton Wrestling Club where they were put through their paces by Tony Morris, Jesse Bradbury and other members of the club. (link and below)
Rachel and George were hugely impressed by the sport the Breakfast Show aired their wrestling experience followed by a live interview with British Wrestling Chief Executive, Colin Nicholson (link at 1hr 50min)
Victoria Derbyshire lined up a spokesperson from each of the eight sports – Wrestling being represented by Non Evans MBE, (an ex-President of the Welsh Wrestling Association and who commentated for the BBC on Wrestling throughout the London 2012 Olympics) (Link at 50mins)
There are many reasons why Wrestling shoud be re-included in the Olympics, amongst which are:-
In more good news prior to the Executive Board vote, Wrestling secured a winning 42.2 per cent of votes on the insidethegames poll asking the public to vote for the sport they think the International Olympic Committee (IOC) should vote to include on the Olympic programme for 2020.
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.