A sport as old as human history that is done the world over and was one of the most popular sports of the original Olympic games gets killed by a bunch of corrupt pansy bureaucrats. This is shameful and I would say the same thing about the decision even if I hadn't wrestled in high school and college.
IOC adds golf and drops wrestling from the Olympics
- Thread starter jmc247
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A sport as old as human history that is done the world over and was one of the most popular sports of the original Olympic games gets killed by a bunch of corrupt pansy bureaucrats. This is shameful and I would say the same thing about the decision even if I hadn't wrestled in high school and college.
You mean like Dressage also known as horse dancing which Mitt Romney's horse competed in last year... a 'sport' where the horse and rider are expected to perform a series of predetermined movements and are rated based on their 'dance'.
In the U.S. and Western Europe wrestling has lost alot of the support it had a century ago (when it was one of the main sports of that era) to other things that TV viewers find more easy to watch and understand.
In the 18th and 19th century wrestling was one of the top 3 sports in Western Europe and America. George Washington wrestled as did Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, Theodore Roosevelt, and many many other top members of American as well as European society. In the first half of the 20th century a number of new sports like American football certainly rose and overtook it, but it was still considered the most manly of the sporting endevors so you had the likes of George Patton, Norman Schwarzkopf, Dwight Eisenhower, John McCain, and many other names people know all too well who wrestled.
Then Title IX managed to do a body blow to American wrestling. By mandating equal numbers of men and women in college sports it created a situation where the most popular male sport which took up a huge number of male slots (Football) was not going to be cut so schools had to make more female sports teams and/or kill other male sports teams and wrestling in colleges around the country took a massive hit. That has been slowly turning around by the way as more schools have of late been bringing it back as things like female wrestling teams have started to take off allowing schools to comply with Title IX and have male wrestling at the same time.
The other biggest problem wrestling has had in the second half of the 20th century to now is that its not as sexy to watch on TV (where the big money is) for your average viewer as most other sports are because most people don't know the rules and in a fast pace sport like wrestling if you haven't done it yourself and don't know the rules it just comes off like men grabbing each other and rolling around.
Ultimate Fighting though is simple enough for the layman to understand which is why its popular on TV in a way real wrestling is not right now. Oh and Professional Wrestling is a joke that is half acting and half soap opera. But, its easy to understand for the layman when a person calls out someone else as a wuss and starts macking on his girlfriend and then gets hit by the other guy with a chair in pre-staged acting routine.
That said wrestling in the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, and even large parts of South America is still extremely popular. It doesn't take the resources to do as golf and many other things popular in the U.S. and Western Europe. What the IOC is thinking about is TV ratings in the U.S. and Western Europe which is where the big money comes in. They don't give a damn that wrestling is one of the few sports done just about everywhere and that is one of the top sports outside Western Europe and the United States.
In the 18th and 19th century wrestling was one of the top 3 sports in Western Europe and America. George Washington wrestled as did Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, Theodore Roosevelt, and many many other top members of American as well as European society. In the first half of the 20th century a number of new sports like American football certainly rose and overtook it, but it was still considered the most manly of the sporting endevors so you had the likes of George Patton, Norman Schwarzkopf, Dwight Eisenhower, John McCain, and many other names people know all too well who wrestled.
Then Title IX managed to do a body blow to American wrestling. By mandating equal numbers of men and women in college sports it created a situation where the most popular male sport which took up a huge number of male slots (Football) was not going to be cut so schools had to make more female sports teams and/or kill other male sports teams and wrestling in colleges around the country took a massive hit. That has been slowly turning around by the way as more schools have of late been bringing it back as things like female wrestling teams have started to take off allowing schools to comply with Title IX and have male wrestling at the same time.
The other biggest problem wrestling has had in the second half of the 20th century to now is that its not as sexy to watch on TV (where the big money is) for your average viewer as most other sports are because most people don't know the rules and in a fast pace sport like wrestling if you haven't done it yourself and don't know the rules it just comes off like men grabbing each other and rolling around.
Ultimate Fighting though is simple enough for the layman to understand which is why its popular on TV in a way real wrestling is not right now. Oh and Professional Wrestling is a joke that is half acting and half soap opera. But, its easy to understand for the layman when a person calls out someone else as a wuss and starts macking on his girlfriend and then gets hit by the other guy with a chair in pre-staged acting routine.
That said wrestling in the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, and even large parts of South America is still extremely popular. It doesn't take the resources to do as golf and many other things popular in the U.S. and Western Europe. What the IOC is thinking about is TV ratings in the U.S. and Western Europe which is where the big money comes in. They don't give a damn that wrestling is one of the few sports done just about everywhere and that is one of the top sports outside Western Europe and the United States.
I don't follow wrestling, and I rarely watched it during the Olympics, but I'm totally shocked by this decision, especially for the reasons stated. Why not make Lingerie Football an Olympic sport or Pro Cocksucking if all you care about are the tv ratings? This will destroy the sport of wrestling worldwide, except maybe in the USA, congrats IOC...
Events which make up the Modern Olympics games have changed over the 117 or so years of the games have been going. So events have been dropped before, nothing new there. Do I watch wrestling, no nor do I really watch Golf either (except for maybe the Ryder Cup).
So the wrestling fans won't be happy is been dropped, but the Golf fans will be happy that's been added.
You can't please everyone all of the time.
So the wrestling fans won't be happy is been dropped, but the Golf fans will be happy that's been added.
You can't please everyone all of the time.
That's an Olympic event?? I was thinking of events like racewalking, personally.
Not one of Carlin's better rants, IMHO. Angry, ignorant, and just unfunny.
Now, Robin Williams knew how to be funny about golf.
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I like Graeco-Roman wrestling and I am sad to see it out of the Olympics for its historical significance, but I cannot help but laugh at jmc's rant how it's a the manliest sport, befitted of American presidents and war generals above "horse dancing" and such effeminate activities, and it's all the feminists' fault. 
Well, baseball made at least some degree of sense because the best players didn't come close to playing for it, so the quality wasn't as good as it should be.
Wrestling goes back to fucking ancient Greece. It was one of the first sports revived when the Olympics returned. For it's heritage alone, wrestling needs to be a core sport. I don't care if literally no one watches it, it should still be there. The Olympics is supposed to be about more than television ratings and money, so they should suck it up.
In what way is jmc's post a "rant"? It's a clearly stated list of facts. Do you have any hard data to refute them?I like Graeco-Roman wrestling and I am sad to see it out of the Olympics for its historical significance, but I cannot help but laugh at jmc's rant how it's a the manliest sport, befitted of American presidents and war generals above "horse dancing" and such effeminate activities, and it's all the feminists' fault.
A rant can be technically accurate and still be a rant.
Can you refute the fact that he argued for wrestling as the "most manly of the sporting endevors" against the decisions of "pansy bureaucrats", that he listed how many American Presidents and Generals practiced it (because of course that's the epitome of manliness), and mentioned how mandatory equal numbers of men and women in college sports killed it for Americans? (passingly mentioning it was actually the dominance of American football as "the most most popular male sport" that actually cut wrestling's numbers...)
Can you refute the fact that he argued for wrestling as the "most manly of the sporting endevors" against the decisions of "pansy bureaucrats", that he listed how many American Presidents and Generals practiced it (because of course that's the epitome of manliness), and mentioned how mandatory equal numbers of men and women in college sports killed it for Americans? (passingly mentioning it was actually the dominance of American football as "the most most popular male sport" that actually cut wrestling's numbers...)
^^ To rant is: "to talk in a noisy, excited, or declamatory manner" or "to utter in a bombastic declamatory fashion." Source
The George Carlin bit quoted upthread -- now, that's a rant.
At any rate, I'm not a fan of wrestling or sports in general, but eliminating wrestling from the Olympics just seems wrong. It's like Campbell's discontinuing tomato soup. Or Honda announcing they're going to stop making motorcycles.
The George Carlin bit quoted upthread -- now, that's a rant.
At any rate, I'm not a fan of wrestling or sports in general, but eliminating wrestling from the Olympics just seems wrong. It's like Campbell's discontinuing tomato soup. Or Honda announcing they're going to stop making motorcycles.
In my opinion what's even more disagreeable about this decision is the reasoning. If nobody actually trained wrestling anymore and if it wasn't a competitive sport with individuals from many different nations having a chance to medal, that's one thing, but simply pointing to tv ratings really makes me angry. At least they are honest about the fact that the IOC only cares about money anymore, but that's about the nicest thing I can say about them...
I don't see anything in your definition contradicting what I've said. But I know you love linking to dictionaries, so I'll let you have your fun.