Wrestling Chief Delighted at IOC Decision; FILA to Step Up Fight for Survival

(ATR) Wrestling president Nenad Lalovic tells Around the Rings hisfederation is ready to continue to fight even harder for Olympicsurvival after making the shortlist for the 2020 Olympics.

"I feel like continuing the fight tomorrow morning," he quipped to ATR shortly after the IOC Executive Board had chosen wrestling, baseball-softball and squash from the eight sports bidders. Karate, sport climbing, wakeboarding and wushu missed the cut.

There were big cheers from the wrestling delegation in press briefing room at the SportAccord convention in St Petersburg. More than 150 reporters attended the news conference.

The complex ballot even included a round of voting which saw baseball-softball go head to head with karate, winning 9-5. Karate had been rumored to be going through.

Asked by ATR about wrestling’s chances of keeping its Olympic status at the IOC Session in Buenos Aires in September, the FILA chief said: "We are confident."

"We were not feeling secure in these three months," he said, referring to the IOC proposal to drop wrestling from the 25 core Olympic sports in February.

He added: "Now the goal is to implement our decisions [changes to the sport] in the next three months and to show the results. We are the old sport… but we are the new sport in a way."

Lalovic also spoke to a group of reporters alongside Alexander Zhukov, president of the Russian Olympic Committee, who has been among those lobbying for wrestling to be spared the Olympic chop.

The Serbian said FILA had done everything it could since the shock February decision to make rule changes and comply with IOC demands. "All the wrestling community was engaged.

"Everybody understands what we have done. We can do more and prepare ourselves for Buenos Aires with additional arguments," he added.

World Squash Federation president N Ramachandran told ATR he was "over the moon" at the IOC decision to shortlist his sport.

"We did a fantastic job in the presentation to the EB. I feel it was top-class and different from last time [2009]," he said.

N Ramachandran said changes introduced by the WSF since it lost out to rugby and golf "had been appreciated". They include a revamp of the scoring system and judging and new glass courts.

The Indian squash chief said the WSF did not fear the might of wrestling’s global lobbying campaign, saying all three sports had to prove themselves again – but this time to an audience of IOC members.

"We have to do our best to win them over by spreading the message of squash and how it has changed," he added.

Baseball-softball’s leaders Ricardo Fraccari and Don Porter were delighted the joint bid had made the cut after rumors suggested karate would be in the top three.

"We are happy about this decision of the IOC. It is good for the millions of athletes of baseball and softball," Fraccari told ATR.

"We will continue to work hard. We learned a lot from the Olympic Family," he added.

Porter insisted that Major League Baseball was "not a problem", despite lingering concerns the best players in the sport might be missing from the Olympics.

"They are all going to be on board," Porter said of the MLB and other baseball and softball leagues. "We are going to work with them and they are going to work with us."

Rejected Sports React

Karate chief Antonio Espinos reportedly left the press briefing room before the announcement was even made by IOC program commission chair Franco Carraro, in the knowledge that the third-time bidder had lost out again.

Roller sports secretary general Roberto Marotta told ATR that his sport was "ready to lose but for sure not with squash".

"This is not a good choice," he fumed.

"I think that there are many other sports that are more popular with more audience, more athletic with more participation and more spread worldwide," Marotta added.

Sport climbing, wushu and wakeboarding were outsiders in the sports bidding contest and had not realistically expected to make the IOC shortlist.

Franco Carraro, head of the IOC’s program commission, told the news conference that he had sympathy for the five sports who were rejected following the two-year process.

"All sports dida fantastic job. I hope this job was useful not only for the IOC but also for the eight sports and five sports not chosen," he said.

"We are happy for the three, we are very unhappy with the other five and we understand they are not happy. But I think we as the IOC program commission are grateful for the collaboration they gave to us."

Carraro claimed the slate was wiped clean and the three sports vying for one spot at the 2020 Games were now competing on a level playing field.

"It is not always a football match of two halves. There are two different matches," he said.

"The first match is finished and the second match starts at 0-0. They are all on the same condition."

Breakdown of the Voting

Wrestling won its way onto the shortlist in the first ballot with eight votes out of 14.

Roller sports and wakeboarding were dropped in the second ballot with karate and wushu atop the pack, neither securing the majority needed to earn the EB’s recommendation.

Karate and wushu stayed atop the sports in the third ballot – but again without the majority required for the EB’s recommendation.

In the fourth ballot, there were two ties – karate and wushu with four votes a piece as well as baseball/softball and squash with three a piece. Baseball/softball won the runoff eight votes to six.

Baseball/softball then kept its momentum in the fifth ballot, while karate and wushu tied with four votes a piece, meaning another runoff, won by karate nine votes to five.

Baseball/softball then beat out karate nine votes to five, earning the second spot on the shortlist.

In the final ballots, squash beat out wushu five votes to four with karate getting just two votes and dropping out of the race. Squash then beat out wushu eight votes to four with sport climbing getting the final two.

Reported by Mark Bisson

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