Wrestling News: Indian wrestlers have strongly condemned the idea of removal of Greco-Roman wrestling from the Olympic programme. Gurpreet who competes in the 77kg and won the Rome Ranking Series gold says that it will be bad for the sport, especially in India. “India had just picked up the momentum and removing it will affect everyone’s motivation,” he added.
Wrestling UA, Russian news daily, on Saturday had claimed that the classical style of wrestling might get removed from the Olympic programme post-Tokyo Games. Quoting President of Wrestling Federation of Azerbaijan Namik Aliyev and Dagestan wrestling, the report added that the step is to promote beach wrestling. “The Greco-Roman style will come out of the program of the Olympics-2024. We have been declaring our athletes to compete in beach wrestling for several years. Last year we won two medals at the World Games. Oyan Nazariani became the world champion. From now on, we will strengthen this type of martial art”.
Gurpreet says that the career of many junior level wrestlers who are en route to the senior squad would be affected more. His teammates Harpreet who competes in the 97kg echoed the same note and said, “For us this maybe not be so detrimental as we have already made a career out of it. However, it will be bad news for the junior wrestlers who dream of winning a medal of India in this style”.
India’s former Greco-Roman chief coach, Kuldeep Singh on the other hand, downplayed the report and said: “it is not possible to remove this style entirely from the Olympics”. He added, “There are millions of wrestlers who compete in this style. What will happen to their future? And unlike India, the Greco-Roman is very popular in Europe. Therefore, I don’t think it is possible”.
But what is the reason for the removal of Greco-Roman from Paris Olympics?
WrestlingUA quoting their source says that this will bring ‘gender parity’ in wrestling. “Women compete only in freestyle wrestling. Therefore, inexperienced viewers think that women’s struggle in this sport. This is a serious flaw in the eyes of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which needs to communicate daily with numerous and noisy activists for equal rights”.
On why there is no women competition in Greco wrestling, the source added: “Women are not allowed in the classical fight for medical reasons. Hence, this initiative will bring gender parity in the sport”. Meanwhile, United World Wrestling (UWW) is yet to confirm the report.
On March 31, according to Bulgarian Federation, Beach Wrestling is being planned to be included in 2024 Paris Olympics. Only women beach wrestlers would be allowed to compete in it.
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