With Olympic Committee Vote, Wrestling Takes First Step Toward Inclusion in 2020 Games

Wrestling was removed from the IOC’s list of 25 core sports in February, meaning that wrestling was forced to compete with seven other sports for one remaining spot. The IOC Wednesday narrowed that field of eight to three, with wrestling joining squash and a joint bid from baseball and softball in the finals.

The decision was made after the eight sports federations made presentations before the IOC executive board, which will submit the three finalists to the full IOC assembly on Sept. 8. Coming up short on Wednesday were karate, roller sports, sport climbing, wakeboarding and wushu.

Since the IOC’s February decision to cut wrestling in 2020, an international grassroots effort has developed to save the sport, which was first contested at the ancient Olympics. Greco-Roman premiered at the first modern iteration of the games in 1896 and, although it was not present in 1900, wrestling has been included at every Olympics since, with freestyle debuting along with weight classes in 1904. Women’s wrestling was introduced at the 2004 Games in Athens, Greece.

MMA has provided multiple former Olympic wrestlers with the opportunity to continue their athletic careers as professionals, with grapplers like Daniel Cormier, Ben Askren, Dan Henderson and Sara McMann all finding success in the combat sport.