Is there a chance we could get more Olympic weights?

[Eagle26]

After I went on a rant in the Vito thread, I came across this article about the fan fest at OTT.

This is on the schedule for Friday…

“4:00-4:30 – Expansion of Olympic Weight Classes, State of Wrestling Internationally Discussion - USA Wrestling Executive Director Rich Bender with WIN Magazine’s Bryan Van Kley”

https://www.themat.com/news/2024/april/12/fan-fest-set-between-sessions-at-u-s-olympic-team-trials-across-street-at-pegula-ice-arena-with-food-drink-vendors-signings-more

Please, Please, Please let it not be just speculation!

[CHROMEBIRD]

Hopefully the half hour discussion isn't "no" followed by 29 minutes 59 seconds of awkward silence

[RYou]

not a chance of it happening.  

[nhs67]

We will lose a style before we gain weight classes at the Olympics and it might not be MGR that is the one that is cut.

[CHROMEBIRD]

I seem to remember folks saying it's more likely that we see the Olympics add beach wrestling before adding any more weights

[FanOfPurdueWrestling]

I don’t get how we can’t get a full 10 weights, they’re already doing the event, paying for venue, promotion(?), mats, referees, TV/streaming, etc.

 

the cost of adding weights is much less than the cost of adding a new sport or whatever’s 

[Eagle26]

5 hours ago, RYou said:

not a chance of it happening.  

 

2 hours ago, nhs67 said:

We will lose a style before we gain weight classes at the Olympics and it might not be MGR that is the one that is cut.

Why do you guys think the executive director of USA is going to be talking about it if there’s no chance of it ever happening?

[nhs67]

4 minutes ago, Eagle26 said:

 

Why do you guys think the executive director of USA is going to be talking about it if there’s no chance of it ever happening?

The IOC could care less what the USA Wrestling Executive Director is doing at any singular point in his past, present, or future lives.

They won't even leave him on Read.  His emails to them don't even get opened except when they select all and Mark All as Read.

[nhs67]

Anyone who doesn't understand that we are closer to 4 weights instead of 10 has not been paying attention.

[Husker_Du]

you have no idea what you're talking about. 

[RockLobster]

1 hour ago, Husker_Du said:

you have no idea what you're talking about. 

Interesting perspective. And it's based on what?

[Former158]

It might be controversial but would fans be in favor of 12-15 weights if it meant only one style (ie freestyle).  For instance in the growing field of women's wrestling, I don't think we will ever add women's greco?

Edited April 14 by Former158

[Eagle26]

7 hours ago, Husker_Du said:

you have no idea what you're talking about. 

Well at least @nhs67 is honest about it in his sig

In all seriousness, I can’t imagine that USA wrestling put this on the schedule at their Fan Fest to make an announcement that it’s never going to happen. That would be a pretty unpopular session for a fan fest lol.

[Eagle26]

1 hour ago, Former158 said:

It might be controversial but would fans be in favor of 12-15 weights if it meant only one style (ie freestyle).  For instance in the growing field of women's wrestling, I don't think we will ever add women's greco?

12-15 weights is overkill and probably not going to happen. However, IF IOC is stuck on 18 weights total, theoretically, you could go 9 weights each for Men’s and Women’s freestyle and dump Greco. Personally, I would rather have that than what we have now because I am not a Greco fan. However, there are a lot of Greco fans out there (especially in other parts of the world), so I don’t think it’s the right thing to do. 

[nhs67]

1 hour ago, Eagle26 said:

Well at least @nhs67 is honest about it in his sig

In all seriousness, I can’t imagine that USA wrestling put this on the schedule at their Fan Fest to make an announcement that it’s never going to happen. That would be a pretty unpopular session for a fan fest lol.

You do understand that USA Wrestling is not the IOC?  I was being dramatic to be dramatic before.  I need you to understand, though, that the IOC does what the IOC does and that what USA Wrestling says or does has very little to no effect on that.

[nhs67]

3 hours ago, Former158 said:

It might be controversial but would fans be in favor of 12-15 weights if it meant only one style (ie freestyle).  For instance in the growing field of women's wrestling, I don't think we will ever add women's greco?

I think were we to add Women's Greco we would see a reduction to four weight classes per style.  That would make 16 weights with 4 medals per weight compared to 18 weights with 4 medals per weight that we curtently have.

Edit: Speaking purely Olympics not UWW.  I could also see 5 per for Olympics.

 

Edited April 14 by nhs67

[Eagle26]

1 hour ago, nhs67 said:

You do understand that USA Wrestling is not the IOC?  I was being dramatic to be dramatic before.  I need you to understand, though, that the IOC does what the IOC does and that what USA Wrestling says or does has very little to no effect on that.

Of course we all understand that (or we all should). The point of this thread is that it appears USA wrestling is making an announcement about the expansion of Olympic weights. That doesn’t mean they were the ones in charge of any decisions, but they may have some inside info about potential changes after this cycle. 

[nhs67]

44 minutes ago, Eagle26 said:

Of course we all understand that (or we all should). The point of this thread is that it appears USA wrestling is making an announcement about the expansion of Olympic weights. That doesn’t mean they were the ones in charge of any decisions, but they may have some inside info about potential changes after this cycle. 

We can only hope.

[CHROMEBIRD]

My impression is that wrestling is in far better shape to avoid the chopping block (plus, no more corrupt Pentathlon voting), but adding weights seems like a stretch. If you look at the IOC's voting criteria wrestling has done a pretty good job in competition format, governance, representation, and legacy but I don't know if the needle has moved significantly in the one criteria that matters most to the IOC, popularity. UWW would really need to to improve ticket sales, attendance, TV & digital viewership, and revenue to justify more weight classes. 

The IOC also considers the popularity of a sport in the hosting country. Wrestling might be OK for LA 2028 but might have some work to do before Brisbane in 2032. UWW has time though, and I think MMA and maybe some of the other styles are popular in Australia.

[AgaveMaria]

Right after we see a singing choir of pigs from Iowa performing at Carnegie Hall.

[MPhillips]

52 minutes ago, AgaveMaria said:

choir of pigs

 

[Voice of the Quakers]

I believe the biggest issue is the number of athletes at the summer games. Target right now is ~10,500 and the IOC does not want the event to be any bigger athlete-wise. As the IOC seeks to add more sports, roster cuts will come from other sports. It is far more likely that the IOC will seek to cut more weight classes from wrestling than to add weight classes.

Before anyone asks whether it would make sense to add more weight classes and reduce the entries per weight class, I would ask if anyone really wants to see an 8 or 12 man bracket. Qualification would be comically difficult.

Wrestling is not the only sport that feels this pressure. I've previously mentioned that taekwondo is down to four weight classes (men's HWY is 80+ KGs). Even women's gymnastics has seen reduced competitors, with team competitions changed from "6 up, 5 count" to "3 up, 3 count" per appartus. 

[FWwrestling]

16 hours ago, Voice of the Quakers said:

I believe the biggest issue is the number of athletes at the summer games. Target right now is ~10,500 and the IOC does not want the event to be any bigger athlete-wise. As the IOC seeks to add more sports, roster cuts will come from other sports. It is far more likely that the IOC will seek to cut more weight classes from wrestling than to add weight classes.

Before anyone asks whether it would make sense to add more weight classes and reduce the entries per weight class, I would ask if anyone really wants to see an 8 or 12 man bracket. Qualification would be comically difficult.

Wrestling is not the only sport that feels this pressure. I've previously mentioned that taekwondo is down to four weight classes (men's HWY is 80+ KGs). Even women's gymnastics has seen reduced competitors, with team competitions changed from "6 up, 5 count" to "3 up, 3 count" per appartus. 

Is there any reason for why swimming gets so many events and athletes?  Is it just simply TV popularity?  Is it a governing body issue?

[Wildcat92]

They could cut about half the swimming events to make room for 4 more weights in freestyle

[CHROMEBIRD]

6 hours ago, FWwrestling said:

Is there any reason for why swimming gets so many events and athletes?  Is it just simply TV popularity?  Is it a governing body issue?

Swimming races are pretty quick. Good question about the number of athletes, though. Track too. But both are more digestible and likely have much stronger attendance, viewership, and revenue than wrestling.