Saving Wrestling

Wrestling fans, coaches, and competitors were stunned in February 2013 when the International Olympic Committee recommended that the sport be dropped from the Olympics after the 2016 Games. But just months later, the IOC General Assembly voted wrestling back into the Games for 2020 and 2024 in a first-round victory. This is the inside story of hownbsp;one of the original Olympic sportsnbsp;came back from a virtual death sentence. Expertly uncovering the struggles within...
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Wrestling fans, coaches, and competitors were stunned in February 2013 when the International Olympic Committee recommended that the sport be dropped from the Olympics after the 2016 Games. But just months later, the IOC General Assembly voted wrestling back into the Games for 2020 and 2024 in a first-round victory. This is the inside story of hownbsp;one of the original Olympic sportsnbsp;came back from a virtual death sentence. Expertly uncovering the struggles within wrestling’s international federation, FILA, and the idiosyncrasies at the top of the Olympic movement, this investigation uncovers how the original and illogical IOC vote to eliminate wrestling transpired and how FILA, USA Wrestling, and Russia engineered the plan to remove ineffectual FILAnbsp;president Raphaël Martinetti from office and keep him out. It also answers questions such as: Who were the leadersnbsp;of thenbsp;movement that transformed the sport into "new wrestling"? Why were the Kremlin, the president of Iran, the United Nations, and Buckingham Palace involved in the sport's quest for redemption? and How did controversial changes in both men and women's Olympic weight classes and the "new rules" become adopted? The book isnbsp;a must fornbsp;wrestlingnbsp;fans as well as those who like to see what goes on behind the scenes at thenbsp;Olympics.