Source: Fox News:
Three months after being dropped from the 2020 Olympics, wrestling won a reprieve Wednesday and made the IOC short list for inclusion in the games.
Also making the cut were squash and a combined baseball-softball bid.
“Eight sports were vying for a single opening in the lineup. Eliminated from contention were five sports — karate, roller sports, sport climbing, wakeboarding and the Chinese martial art of wushu.
The IOC executive board will submit wrestling, squash and baseball-softball to the full IOC assembly for a final decision on Sept. 8 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.”
“The addition of wrestling to the mix has not gone over well with all the sports. If wrestling is reinstated in September, that will defeat the IOC’s original goal of bringing in a new sport in 2020.
Wrestling, which has freestyle and Greco-Roman events, has gone through a major upheaval since February’s rejection by the IOC. Raphael Martinetti resigned as FILA president and was replaced by Nenad Lalovic, women and athletes were brought into decision-making roles, and changes were enacted to make the sport more compelling.
Among the changes, matches will consist of two three-minute sessions instead of three two-minute periods, and scoring will be cumulative instead of the previous best-of-three system.”
