Should Greco be an Olympic sport?

[WrestlingRasta]

13 minutes ago, MJD said:

No, Greco-Roman has to go. We need to funnel the resources into freestyle.  In the ideal world, it should stay. I personally like it, but funding two kinds of wrestling isn't feasible.  We need more weights in freestyle

You bring up a very good point, except for one small problem:

Iran, Georgia, Azeribijan, Serbia, Hungary, Turkey, and Armenia all finished in the top ten in both styles.  

Iran was second in both.  Azerbijan, the greco champ, finished 5th in FS.  US, the champ in FS, finished...........22nd in greco.   I realize the resources in these countries make the United States of America look like Somalia, but we might be able to find a dollar or two if we really wanted to put forth the effort, instead of just scrapping it because we aren't good.  

[Eagle26]

Personally, I would much rather see 12 weights for freestyle and scrap Greco. I imagine the majority of Americans would agree. But I also understand it’s not all about what we want. Greco has be a long time tradition of the Olympic Games. Many countries prefer Greco. It’s definitely a niche sport and the attraction for casual fans is probably never going to be good. But there’s many other Olympic sports that fall into that category too. I think we can promote freestyle and get that more mainstream without taking away from Greco.

[Takuto_Otoguro]

No. And if they add women's greco it could get really ugly with 4 weights per style. I am surprised greco has survived this long being the only olympic sport without a women's division. I believe UWW even had a plan to cut greco but I am unsure what became of that.

If they do make the mistake of keeping greco I think they should kap it at around 77kg. The weights above that are particularly unwatchable even by GR standards. Of course they should allow Lopez to win his 5th Olympic gold first and make history. But I would not miss it if it was gone after Paris and the weights were given to FS.

Edited October 4, 2023 by Takuto_Otoguro

[AgaveMaria]

Yes, it should remain an Olympic Sport.

Also the Wrestling folks should sue the Olympics to force full weight classes in the Olympics like the World Championships. After all, they don't force basketball teams to play with only 4 players or baseball with only 8. Why punish Freestyle wrestling? Forcing guys to suddenly change weight classes makes for a product that is not as good as it can be.

[ILLINIWrestlingBlog]

Greco is freaking awesome! It is too tied with tradition to be left out. The high amplitude throws are the only rival to gymnastics when it comes to explosiveness. 

And putting both guys down in a match used to make no sense to me, but it adds to the excitement. More throws! Americans need to get more comfortable in par terre. 

In 2024, the Olympics are adding breaking which pisses me off. They call it "breaking," though I've always thought it was called breakdancing. Then, there's skateboarding, and you can bet they're talking about Call of Duty. We need to keep every wrestling slot--or add them.

My suggestion: Move all wrestling to the Winter Olympics. It would be king!

[Jason Bryant]

My suggestion: Move all wrestling to the Winter Olympics. It would be king!

Not an option. Sport doesn’t have anything to do with snow or ice.

[MadMardigain]

12 hours ago, Jason Bryant said:

Not an option. Sport doesn’t have anything to do with snow or ice.

Yet.  A few years back you would have said the sport doesn’t have anything to do with sand either.  

[ILLINIWrestlingBlog]

20 hours ago, Jason Bryant said:

Not an option. Sport doesn’t have anything to do with snow or ice.

It's indoors. It should be an option. THINK BIG! 

[gimpeltf]

17 minutes ago, ILLINIWrestlingBlog said:

It's indoors. It should be an option. THINK BIG! 

So is basketball

[Interviewed_at_Weehawken]

22 hours ago, Jason Bryant said:

Not an option. Sport doesn’t have anything to do with snow or ice.

Thank you! I say this every time this comes up.  i don't know why people don't get it!

Edited October 10, 2023 by Interviewed_at_Weehawken

[Interviewed_at_Weehawken]

1 hour ago, gimpeltf said:

So is basketball

And volleyball and a ton of others.  Why don't people get that the Winter Games have to do with ice and snow?

[wrestle87]

On 9/25/2023 at 9:36 AM, Gus said:

Let's focus on getting the olympics back to 10 weights. Folkstyle wrestling olympics happen every March in the USA at NCAA's. Not enough interest for it outside the USA.

Hey, out of curiosity, are there any other countries with national styles of wrestling that have nationals on par with something the size of ncaa’s?  I’m thinking of India, Mongolia, Africa, anything like that.

[nhs67]

10 hours ago, wrestle87 said:

Hey, out of curiosity, are there any other countries with national styles of wrestling that have nationals on par with something the size of ncaa’s?  I’m thinking of India, Mongolia, Africa, anything like that.

Mongolia comes to mind, although it is nearly an entirely different style of wrestling.

Japan has Sumo.

India has a style of slap wrestling that they do.  It's weird.

[Jim L]

14 hours ago, wrestle87 said:

Hey, out of curiosity, are there any other countries with national styles of wrestling that have nationals on par with something the size of ncaa’s?  I’m thinking of India, Mongolia, Africa, anything like that.

Lots of countries with a wide variety of styles. Lots of traditional belt wrestling. India has sand wrestling, Mongolia has a great traditional wrestling style.  Easy to go down an internet rabbit hole on this

[gimpeltf]

[MadMardigain]

Turkey and Senegal come to mind with a specific national style. 

[bnwtwg]

Kabaddi