In a move that stunned a lot of folks, most notably those in the wrestling community, the International Olympic Committee today announced it is dropping wrestling from its core sports list for the 2020 Games, effectively meaning there will be no wrestling on those Olympics. Given wrestling's Olympic history (in the modern games it goes back to 1896), this was fairly shocking. But we also understand these decisions are difficult. As such, we wanted to bring to the forefront the 25 disciplines that are included still as core summer sports:
athletics (track and field)
rowing
badminton
basketball
boxing
canoeing
cycling
equestrian
fencing
football (soccer)
gymnastics
weightlifting
handball
hockey (field hockey)
judo
swimming
modern pentathlon
taekwondo
tennis
table tennis
shooting
archery
triathlon
sailing
volleyball
A n observation: Why does triathlon have to be a separate core category when we already have track and field, swimming and cycling?
But we digress. Plenty of factors go into the decision to keep or eliminate sports, but in this case it likely boiled down to money and politics. We could pick on any number of sports for any number of reasons (table tennis? That's a game. Equestrian? The horse is the athlete, so it's not a sport. Tennis? Why does a sport with four major championships need inclusion?). But that's not our decision to make.
We would, however, throw the floor open in the comments for YOUR suggestions on core sports you would gladly give up in order to spare wrestling.
