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Lee Dae-hoon (left) of South Korea kicks high against an Egyptian opponent in the 2012 London Olympic taekwondo quarterfinals in August, last year. (Joint Photo Press Corps) |
LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) ― An official familiar with the decision says IOC leaders have dropped wrestling from the program for the 2020 Olympics.
In a surprise decision Tuesday, the offficial tells The Associated Press that the IOC executive board decided to retain modern pentathlon and remove wrestling instead.
The official spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the decision hadn’t been announced yet.
The IOC board reviewed the 26 sports on the current Olympic program. Eliminating one sport allows the International Olympic Committee to add a new sport to the program later this year.
IOC leaders met Tuesday to decide which sport to drop from the summer Olympic program, with modern pentathlon the most at risk.
Under the closest scrutiny was modern pentathlon, which has been on the Olympic program since the 1912 Stockholm Games. It was created by French baron Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympic movement.
Modern pentathlon combines fencing, horse riding, swimming, running and shooting ― the five skills required of a 19th century cavalry officer. The sport’s governing body, the UIPM, has been lobbying hard to protect its Olympic status.
The executive board was reviewing a report from the IOC program commission assessing each of the 26 sports contested at last year’s London Olympics. The report analyzed more than three dozen criteria, including television ratings, ticket sales, anti-doping policy and global participation and popularity. With no official rankings or recommendations contained in the report, the final decision by the 15-member board was also subject to political, emotional and sentimental factors.
Taekwondo, the Korean martial art that has been in the Olympics since 2000, has also been mentioned as being among the sports in potential danger. The sport introduced a new scoring system in London to eliminate judging controversies and the gold medals, previously dominated by South Koreans, were spread among eight different nations.
The last sports removed from the Olympics were baseball and softball, voted out by the IOC in 2005 and off the program since the 2008 Beijing Games. Golf and rugby will be joining the program at the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro.
Baseball and softball have combined forces to seek inclusion in 2020, competing against karate, squash, roller sports, sport climbing, wakeboarding and wushu. Whichever sport is dropped Tuesday will join those seven vying for the single opening in 2020.
The IOC executive board will meet in May in St. Petersburg, Russia, to decide which sport or sports to propose for 2020 inclusion. The final vote will be made at the IOC general assembly in September in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
