February 13, 2013 (Lausanne, Switzerland) – The Executive Board (EB) of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) agreed today on the sports it proposes for the 2020 Summer Olympic Games. And, it was wrestling rather than cycling, that now seems pinned and unable to get up. The IOC was under pressure to remove one summer sport from the roster and there had been speculation that cycling – with its many doping scandals – was going to be pushed out.
Cycling is thus still among the 25 sports retained by the EB which include: “athletics, rowing, badminton, basketball, boxing, canoeing, cycling, equestrian, fencing, football, gymnastics, weightlifting, handball, hockey, judo, swimming, modern pentathlon, taekwondo, tennis, table tennis, shooting, archery, triathlon, sailing and volleyball,” according to an IOC press release.
Actually, wrestling is down, but not out and could still be on the 2020 Olympic agenda. “The EB recommended that wrestling, governed by the International Federation of Associated Wrestling Styles (FILA), not be included on the list of core sports. Wrestling will now join the seven short-listed sports – baseball/softball, karate, roller sports, sport climbing, squash, wakeboarding and wushu – vying for inclusion in the 2020 Olympic programme as an additional sport.”
And no final decision has been taken: “The eight sports are scheduled to make presentations to the Executive Board at its meeting in St Petersburg, Russia, in May. The EB will select which of the eight sports to recommend to the 125th IOC Session for inclusion as an additional sport on the 2020 programme.” This means that the final decision – about which sport to cut and which new one to add – will be taken in Buenos Aires, Argentina in September 2013. Also to be decided then is which city will host the 2020 Olympics: Istanbul, Madrid or Tokyo.
IOC press release: <http://www.olympic.org/news/ioc-executive-board-recommends-25-core-sports-for-2020-games/190772>www.olympic.org/news/ioc-executive-board-recommends-25-core-sports-for-2020-games/190772