For now, the International Olympic committee has tossed wrestling outside its rings for the 2020 Games.
Wrestling is one of the original Olympic sports, one of the classic person-on-person sports. It's like taking kicking out of football.
Many high schools and a three colleges, including Central Baptist College, have recently added wrestling to their sports offerings. Having wrestling no longer classified as an Olympic sport in the future could stunt its growth.
One of the basic reasons seems to be the IOC is trying to appeal to a younger demographic, which will be an established demographic by 2020. They are trying to include an X-Games style agenda, with such activities as BMX racing and possibly wakeboarding, to attract and sustain interest (and TV clout and subsequent revenue) for a maturing Gen-X.
Wrestling still has a chance to gain a toehold as the one sport added to the list by the host country. But it will have to compete against several other sports and I'm not sure MMA fighting will eventually shove it outside the rings for good.
It's still baffling to me that wrestling (as old as the Olympics itself, modern and ancient) gets the boot and events such as rhythmic gymnastics and synchronized swimming and diving are kept.
I'm grappling with the whole concept.