By Gil LeBreton
glebreton@star-telegram.com
From its earliest times, wrestling has always kept it simple.
A lionskin, a well-positioned neck hold, a cauliflower ear or two, and there you have it.
Six or seven minutes of sweat and stamina, with no shot clock or dot race required.
The first ancient Olympic Games in 776 B.C. featured a foot race, a chariot derby and a wrestling match. When the modern Games began anew in 1896, wrestling resumed its rightful place on the event card.
There it remained, upright and unflinching, until Tuesday, when it was blindsided by the executive board of the International Olympic Committee.
Citing its presumed quadrennial mandate to modernize and invigorate the Olympics, the board voted to recommend dropping wrestling from the Games beginning in 2020.
The announcement stunned the wrestling world from Azerbaijan to Zambia.
"It was emotional," John Smith said from Stillwater, Okla., where he coaches the Oklahoma State wrestling team.
Smith, a two-time Olympic gold medalist and six-time world champion, is roundly proclaimed to be America's greatest amateur wrestler.
But there, unfortunately, may be part of the problem. He won Olympic gold medals in 1988 and 1992, yet most Americans wouldn't know the unassuming champion, who wrestled at 136 pounds, from any other John Smith.
Despite cutbacks at the NCAA Division I level, wrestling has continued to grow, according to the sport's national governing body, USA Wrestling. Over the past decade, no high school sport in Texas has grown at a faster rate than wrestling.
And why not? The sport's appeal is not defined by any velvet ropes. You don't need a country club membership or $500 ice skates to be a wrestler.
Heavyweights will always command center stage, but normal-sized athletes -- men and women -- compete in wrestling.
Athletes from 71 nations competed for medals at the 2012 London Olympics. Wrestlers from 54 nations have taken home Olympic medals.
Yet, wrestling blindly found itself defenseless when the IOC board met this week. The 15-member executive group included no representatives from traditional wrestling powers such as Russia, Japan or the USA. The backgrounds of the board members were in the sports of, among others, sailing, fencing, judo, badminton and rowing.
Politics and back-scratching have long been the accepted norms whenever an IOC group sits down to vote. Included on the executive board this time was Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr., son of the late IOC czar, who happens to be vice president of the governing body for modern pentathlon.
Modern pentathlon was expected to be the sport recommended to be dropped.
The IOC board gave no reasons for its surprise -- and secret -- vote. Spokesman Mark Adams said, "It's not a case of what's wrong with wrestling. It is what's right with the 25 core sports."
Really? Does the IOC really want to go there, with rhythmic gymnastics and synchronized swimming considered "core"?
One report cited wrestling's relatively low TV viewer numbers from London.
Huh? And modern pentathlon survived?
True, wrestling has no Kobe Bryants, no Usain Bolts, to brighten marquees and line the pockets of the IOC.
Its enduring appeal, though, remains its simplicity -- two superbly conditioned athletes, armed only with strength and agility, on a solitary mat.
The final IOC vote on the recommendation will come in September.
"I can tell you that wrestling will come together," Olympian John Smith assured. "The fight has just begun."
The IOC, if nothing else, owes wrestling a fair fight.
Gil LeBreton, 817-390-7697Twitter: @gilebreton
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