SB Nation’s Luke Thomas reported via twitter that Olympic Wrestling was selected by the International Olympic Committee’s executive board as one of three sports that may be included in the 2020 Olympic Games. Baseball/Softball and Squash were the other two.
In September, the full 100 member IOC will vote on which sport to include in the 2020 games. The announcement on Wednesday brought cheers from the members of Olympic Wrestling supporters in attendance.
Payout Perspective:
The “Save Wrestling” movement was touted by many MMA fighters and received support from the UFC. Former Olympic Gold Medalist and current pro-wrestler Kurt Angle picked up the cause as well. The movement to save wrestling was picked up via many platforms including social media. Still, its not certain whether all of the lobbying will help the efforts. We will see if the efforts to “modernize” the sport will appeal to the IOC and help get it back into the Olympics.
Hopefully wrestling will “squash” the competition for the slot!