Nobody will eliminate wrestling from Olympics – Igali

Recently, the Executive Committee of the International Olympics Committee, IOC, recommended the delisting of wrestling from the 2020 Olympic to the IOC General Assembly and a decision is to be taken in September. Reacting to the development, Igali said the recommendation will not see the light of day because the World Wrestling Federation has since […]

Recently, the Executive Committee of the International Olympics Committee, IOC, recommended the delisting of wrestling from the 2020 Olympic to the IOC General Assembly and a decision is to be taken in September.
Reacting to the development, Igali said the recommendation will not see the light of day because the World Wrestling Federation has since set up a 5 man committee to meet with IOC.
He said the committee of which he is the member representing Africa will meet soon in Saint Petersburg to discuss before meeting with the IOC.
“The fact is that wrestling is only being recommended to be taken off from the 2020 Olympics. This was the decision of the Executive Committee of the IOC to the General Assembly. They have to ratify it in September.
“The wrestling federation in the world has set up a five man committee around the world and I am one of them. I am the representative of Africa. We are having a meeting in Saint Petersburg in ten days. We shall be meeting with IOC and making presentations. I will also be making a presentation and the critical vote will come up sometime on September 9. “We shall finally convince the IOC to reverse the decision.
“We are very hopeful because of the discussions we have been having with individual IOC members. It’s gonna be over turned but we still have to do our home work”.
Igali also hinged his optimism on the fact that wrestling apart from being the first sport in the Olympics before the birth of Jesus Christ has over 202 affiliates and cannot be eliminated from the Olympics without a just cause.
“Let me tell you wrestling can’t be eliminated from Olympics. There are 202 national federations that are affiliated to wrestling. I can assure you that if you are a father, this morning, two of your children wrestled. It is as natural as that to man.
“At the last Olympics we had 71 countries that competed in wrestling and apart from athletics which has about 30 different disciplines, wrestling was the sport that had the most diversity in terms of medals. 29 countries won medals in wrestling. You can’t beat that and to now say you want to eliminate the first sport in Olympics before the birth of Christ, and the original sport of the original Olympics?, it is just craziness. It just can’t happen. We are very sure that what happened was politics and I don’t want to get into the political side of it because I have a presentation to make. I do know that decision cannot and will not stand”.