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Monday, September 9, 2013

Olympics: Wrestling fends off squash and baseball to earn 2020 spot

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http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/olympics/news/olympics-wrestling-fends-off-squash-and-baseball-to-earn-2020-return-less-than-a-year-after-being-dropped-8803849.html

Tongue in cheek, ok.
International Olympic Committee (IOC) had dropped the sport in February but it will return in 2020 after undergoing a major reform.

The sport had to beat bids from squash and baseball/softball to win a vote by the IOC members. Wrestling won in the first round of voting with 49 votes, but there was disappointment for squash which finish third with 22 votes, two behind baseball/softball.

Nenad Lalovic, the Serbian who took over as president of the international wrestling federation in February, said: "We made mistakes but we decided to listen and learn and those mistakes will not happen again.

"We have modernised our federation, our constitution has become much more democratic with more women and athletes in the administration and with the referees absolutely independent."

The result came as no surprise - the initial exclusion of wrestling has caused uproar in countries such as Russia and the United States, and it is so popular in Japan it would have been unthinkable not to have it as part of the 2020 Games in Tokyo.

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