EXECUTIVE NOTES By Rich Bender, USA Wrestling Executive Director
Keeping the Olympic Dream alive for wrestling and making our sport stronger in the long term Tuesday, February 12, 2013 is a day that few of us in the wrestling community will ever forget. Here in the United States, we woke up to the news that the International Olympic Committee Executive Board voted to rec- ommend that wrestling not remain a core sport at the 2020 Olympic Games. It is fair to say that few people around the world had anticipated this decision, and that few people closely involved in the Olympic movement felt that this decision was likely or possible. From the moment of that recommendation, USA Wrestling
and the international wrestling community have worked tireless- ly to ensure that wrestling remains a core sport in the Olympic Games. It has been a major challenge that is forcing the wrestling community to be at its best, but it is a challenge which I truly believe that our sport can overcome. To be very clear, wrestling is not out of the Olympic Games at
this point. Wrestling will be contested at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil as scheduled. The question is about wrestling’s status at the 2020 Olympics and beyond. The final decision about the 2020 Games will not be made until September, when the IOC General Assembly meets in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Although we do not have a lot of time, the international wrestling community will have the opportunity to make its case to the IOC and to the entire world about why wrestling should remain in the Olympic Games forever. I believe the wrestling community had the same initial reac-
tion to the IOC recommendation. When we heard the news we were shocked and hurt. Shortly after that, it was natural for wrestling people to be angry about the situation. But once we went through those emotions, wrestlers began doing what wrestlers know how to do best. We rolled up our sleeves and went to work, focused on the challenge at hand. I can assure you that USA Wrestling has a great team set to
lead us through this challenge. The Committee for the Preservation of Olympic Wrestling (CPOW) is an all-star group
of wrestling leaders, all who are very suc- cessful in life and have tremendous skills and experience to help lead the effort. World champion and Olympic medalist Bill Scherr serves as chair, and we have an in-depth interview with Bill in this edition of USA Wrestler. All of the members of CPOW are dedicated to working with the U.S. wrestling community to win this fight. Internationally, there have been some
key changes at FILA which will make a big difference in our abil- ity to retain Olympic wrestling. Only three days after the IOC announcement, the FILA Executive Board gave a vote of no confidence to President Raphael Martinetti, who stepped down. The FILA Bureau selected Nenad Lalovic as its Acting President and Lalovic appointed Stan Dziedzic of the USA as his top assistant. FILA has hired the best international strategy firm in the world to assist in the international campaign, and has worked closely with CPOW and USA Wrestling in many ways. This will be a difficult challenge, but it is something which the international wrestling community can achieve. We all know that wrestling, an original Olympic sport which is popular all over the world, deserves to be in the Olympic Games. We have the lead- ership team in place to make our case. However, in order for us to succeed, we need everybody who
cares about wrestling here in the United States to get involved and help our cause. There are a number of simple ways you can make a difference. Please go to the website,
KeepWrestlingInTheOlympics.com, and become part of that large army of wrestling people who believe in Olympic wrestling. You can sign up to help, share information with your friends and send in a donation to help pay for our many projects. When this is all over, we truly believe that this challenge will
make USA Wrestling and the sport of wrestling on the interna- tional level much stronger. We are being pushed hard, just like wrestling training does to our athletes, but when the campaign is over, we will have raised wrestling to an even higher level. We appreciate your support and involvement and will give regu- lar updates on our progress.
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