Wrestling was dropped as a sport by the Olympics on Tuesday to the outcry of many fans and athletes that want to keep it as a competition and in response IOC president Jacques Rogge will meet with top officials to discuss the decision.
According to the Associated Press, Rogge will meet with the head of wrestling's governing body soon and that the two will discuss the decision to drop the sport and whether its spot can be saved for the 2020 Olympic games. Wrestling was one of 26 sports at last year's London Olympics that were cut in favor of golf and other sports.
Rogge said to the Press on Wednesday that he was contacted by Raphael Martinetti, who is the president of international wrestling federation FILA, and that he was encouraged by their discussion and that he will speak soon about the sport and its determination to stay an Olympic competition.
"We agreed we would meet at the first opportunity to have discussions," Rogge said at a news conference at the close of a two-day board meeting. "I should say FILA reacted well to this disheartening news for them.
"They vowed to adapt the sport and vowed to fight to be eventually included in the 2020 slot."
Wrestling will still be an Olympic sport at the 2016 games in Rio de Janeiro and the best chance it has to stay on the docket for the 2020 games is to convince the IOC to reverse the decision of the voting board.
It is just one of seven different sports that are applying for just one opening in 2020, including baseball and softball, squash, karate, roller sports, wakeboarding, climbing and the martial art of wushu. Another vote will later be made in September about the sports in Argentina.
The IOC said that there is a chance the board could put up three spots for discussion of the spot and that one could be wrestling.
"The vote of yesterday is not an elimination of wrestling from the Olympic Games," Rogge said. "Wrestling will participate in the games in Rio de Janeiro. To the athletes who train now, I say, 'Continue training for your participation in Rio. Your federation is working for the inclusion in the 2020 Games.'"
Wrestling is one of the oldest sports at the competition and the event dates back to the first modern Olympic Games that went down in the late 1800s. Others came out in support of brining the sport back, including the leader of the Russian Olympic Committee, who said he would write a letter to compel Rogge to appeal the decision.
Various guidelines and figures were looked at in making the decision, including anti-doping issues, TV ratings, sales of tickets at events as well as popularity. Other sports that have been taken out of the Olympics in the past include baseball and softball, which were voted out after the games in Athens. Gold and rugby are two new sports being added to the games in 2016.
"We knew even before the decision was taken whatever sport would not be included in the core program would lead to criticism from the supporters of that sport," Rogge said.
Rogge was asked if wrestling at the Olympics is over after the decision by the IOC.
"I cannot look into a crystal ball into the future," he said. "We have established a fair process by which the sport that would not be included in the core has a chance to compete with the seven other sports for the slot on the 2020 Games."
