The internet is a wonderful thing. You can find out important facts within seconds.
Such as this: it's not golf's fault that wrestling was voted out of the Olympics for 2020 by the International Olympic Committee, despite what members of the media and athletes in other sports believe.
You wouldn't have to scroll through one page of a Google search to find out that golf was voted into the Olympics on Oct. 9, 2009 -- three years, four months and two days before the decision was handed down to eliminate wrestling.
But one national sportswriter, Yahoo's Dan Wetzel, believes golf is to blame. Here is his column?headlined: "IOC's poor decision to add golf costs wrestling its spot in the Olympics."
Another writer, Rick Brown from the Des Moines Register, tweeted:?"I love golf, but putting it in the Olympics in place of wrestling is an absolute joke."?
Again, fuzzy memories, or not taking the time to check facts are at play here. Golf was not, repeat, not put in the Olympics "in place of wrestling."
Huff Post blogger Sandip Roy, looking straight down his nose at golf, stated:?No golfer's ... ultimate career dream is winning an Olympic gold."
Oh. You know that, about every golfer in the world? Congratulations Sandip. You should go immediately to Vegas with that kind of clairvoyance.
Take MMA star Rhonda Rousey, who competed in the Olympics in judo in 2008, earning a bronze medal. Her laughable comment:?"In the original Olympics they had wrestling in there and I know they're replacing it with golf. If you don't break a sweat, it's not a sport, its a skill."
An old, worn-out criticism about golf. How much are they sweating in curling, dressage, archery and rifle shooting?
Even one of golf's major champions, Zach Johnson (from wrestling-crazed Iowa) tweeted agreement with Brown. Zach, you're one of my favorite guys on the PGA Tour but don't you realize how much Olympic golf will help the appeal of the sport world-wide ... which will only help the bottom line of every professional golfer and governing body?
But Rousey and Johnson are athletes and not charged with reporting facts. The media is.
Instead of blaming golf how about focusing on this sleazy tidbit:?Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr., of Spain, then son of the former IOC president, is an executive with the International Modern Pentathlon Union -- and on the IOC executive board. When it came to cutting one sport, the IOC had to choose between wrestling and the modern pentathlon.
That winner wasn't hard to predict, in retrospect.
How about this angle? There are 15 members in the IOC executive board, who did the voting. None are from the U.S., Russia or Iran, perhaps the three leading countries in the world in terms of wrestling popularity. Nine of the 15 members of the IOC board are from Europe, from where most modern pentathlon athletes hail.
By the way, name the five sports in the modern pentathlon. I'll save you the Google search: pistol shooting, fencing, a 200-meter freestyle swimming race, show jumping and a cross-country run. Errol Flynn would have made a great modern pentathlete just in the process of filming one of his swashbuckling movies.
Let's talk about inclusion. Wrestling teams were sent to the 2012 London Olympics by 71 countries, for a total of 387 athletes.?There were 29 countries who shared 72 medals -- eight of them from Europe and only Hungary among the top-10, with two medals. The Middle East, Russia and the U.S. dominate the sport.
The modern pentathlon had 26 countries and a total of 70 athletes competing. Six countries medaled in the modern pentathlon, with four of those medals going to Europeans. Almost half of the total participants are from European countries.
And they say golf is exclusive.
The IOC made a terrible decision to eliminate wrestling. But it?was never about wrestling vs. golf. It's wrestling vs. the special interests on the IOC board determined to keep adrift a sport that could only rustle up 70 athletes worldwide to compete in the Olympics.
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