The Badminton Boys

[Valin]

WSJ:

2/15/13

 

Sports fans are struggling to understand this week's decision by the executive board of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to toss wrestling out of the games as of 2020. But what first appeared to be a crass decision in pursuit of TV ratings now looks worse.

 

In voting to kill a tradition that was at the center of the ancient Greek Olympics from the eighth century B.C. onward—and since the start of the modern games in 1896—the board appears to have violated its own evaluation criteria. A sport's popularity and finances are key items in those criteria. And for much of the TV audience, wrestling will never be as, er, viewer-friendly as beach volleyball. But AP columnist Jim Litke reports that wrestling attracts a much larger TV audience than, for example, modern pentathlon, which the IOC affirmed this week as a "core sport."

 

The IOC criteria also note that when the economics of a sport are considered, the "expenditure" is a key consideration along with the income. It is hard to find a cheaper event to produce than a wrestling match, which requires no equipment beyond a foam mat. "History and tradition" are also allegedly important to the IOC, yet wrestling is widely considered to be man's oldest sport.

 

(Snip)