Oswald Plots Rowing Exit Plan; FILA Shakeup "Necessary First Step" Says New No. 2

FILA Shakeup "Necessary First Step" Says New No. 2

New No. 2 Stan Dziedzic tells Around the Rings he supports Nenad Lalovic as "the best person to be the face" of the International Federation of Associated Wrestling Styles going forward.

"He has strong diplomatic and language skills, vital to press wrestling's case to the IOC," Dziedzic says by email from Phuket, Thailand, where the FILA Bureau met over the weekend to reassess its leadership in the wake of wrestling’s recent exclusion from the IOC list of 25 "core sports" for the 2020 Olympics.

Following the resignation of Raphaël Martinetti on Saturday, the Bureau nominated Lalovic as acting president and Dziedzic as his assistant, choices still subject to the approval of an extraordinary congress.

"It was a necessary first step," says Dziedzic, a welterweight bronze medalist for the U.S. at Montreal 1976.

"Ex-president Martinetti, after some soul-searching, realized his skill-set was not well suited for the challenges facing our sport. Mr. Lalovic's diplomatic and language skills, in contrast, are more polished."

Among the first orders of business for Lalovic will be a meeting with IOC president Jacques Rogge scheduled by Martinetti for the beginning of March.

"We are listening to the IOC’s concerns and learning from their guidance," the Serb says in a statement posted Monday to FILA’s website.

"We must strive to improve our sport’s Olympic offering in order to retain our position on the Olympic program and evolve with the times."

After its Tuesday snub from the IOC, wrestling now joins karate, roller sport, squash, sport climbing, wakeboard, wushu as well as a joint bid by baseball and softball for consideration by EB members at their May meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia with one or more to be recommended for a vote of the IOC Session scheduled for September in Buenos Aires.

Oswald Reveals Rowing Exit Plan

Denis Oswald is on his way out as president of the International Rowing Federation.

According to an official wrap-up from the 2013 FISA Extraordinary Congress staged over the weekend in Copenhagen, Denmark, the Swiss IOC member revealed he would seek re-election Sept. 2 at the FISA Ordinary Congress – but only for a "transitional period" of six to eight months.

"The Council had agreed to stage the election of his successor at the same Congress in order to assist the newly elected ‘president-elect’ in the transfer of knowledge and introductions around in the international sports world after having held the position 24 years," explains FISA.

Oswald, who handed over the reins of the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations last month, was first elected FISA president in 1989.

National federations are asked to declare possible candidates for his successor to FISA by June 2.

Also over the weekend, FISA renamed the Adaptive Rowing Commission the Para-Rowing Commission for communications reasons and eliminated the controversial 100m breakage rule, among other changes.

Brasov 2013 Begins

Competition runs through Friday at the 2013 European Youth Winter Olympic Festival.

More than 1,000 athletes from 45 countries are in Brasov, Romania for events in four winter Olympic sports and eight disciplines: alpine skiing, biathlon, cross-country skiing, figure skating, ice hockey, short track, snowboarding and ski jumping.

Media Watch

John Irving explains "how wrestling lost the Olympics" in this New York Times op-ed.

Written by Matthew Grayson

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