UnderGround Forum >> Olympics Will Regret Dropping Wrestling..Forbes

US Wrestling Olympic Trials, April 21, 2012 in Iowa City, Iowa. (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)
Even in a post-Lance world, word today that the International Olympic Committee had decided today to cut wrestling from the 2020 games came across as a craven stunner. And I won’t be surprised when they back down.
It’s not that I’m a huge wrestling fan. I’m not. But nor am I a regular fan of bobsledding, field hockey, rowing, hammer throw, or, for that matter, gymnastics or Alpine skiing or the 100 meter dash or swimming. At least not normally. And neither are you.
But come the Olympics, I’m totally absorbed in all of these. That’s the point. The more obscure the better. During London, I caught the Dream Team pounding some poor, hapless hopeful before they lined up for autographs. But that’s hardly sport.
I spent a lot more time — thanks to NBC’s excellent iPad app–watching things I absolutely don’t care about at any other time. I spent nearly an entire afternoon watching fencing. And another watching archery. I introduced my tiny daughter to field hockey–and air rifle (that was a bit of a stretch for a 2 year old. You can’t even tell the guns are firing. Lots of quizzical looks at dad.) And yeah, I saw a lot of online advertising during all of that, and didn’t mind (much).
Once they snuffed that flame, though, I folded my fandom like a pup tent, and hiked away, like I always do, forgetting even the most marquee events until next time around. And so did you.
Proof? Take swimming, that most telegenic and Golden of all summer Olympic sports. During the last summer games, NBC devoted a hefty slice of their 272 prime-time hours to the sport, pumping up the drama of Michael Phelps last games, and so on.
Jump ahead to February, 2013. If you feel like watching some swimming (and you don’t) –it will take some work. It can be done, mind you. You can hunt up the live streams of some competitions online. Or you can dig deep into your cable guide. Deep. Like down to whatever 4-digit channel they run the Universal Sports Network on in your neck of the woods. If you can find it, the 2013 Arena Grand Prix at Orlando starts airing — Live! — on February 15. But you won’t do that. Because you don’t care right now. Because this is not the Olympics.
What about gymnastics? That’s a bit more high profile, even in a non-Olympic year. How high? The 2013 American Cup will get TWO FULL HOURS of coverage from NBC on March 2. Wheaties box? We’ll save that for the Games, thanks much.
What I’m saying is that obscurity and low viewership are pretty relative terms by which to measure Olympic sports. By killing wrestling, a sport that has appeared in every game since 1896, the dullards who man the programming calendar at the IOC are going further than they ever have before in showing that they don’t understand their product (and that’s a ways).
Memo to the IOC: No matter what you think, you’re not marketing the NBA, guys. You’re selling the not-NBA (or the illusion of that, at least). The marketability of the Olympics is the whole — the whole exotic, rare, authentic athletic experience where we viewers from all over the world come together to watch nobodies become somebodies for two weeks every two years. And while we are smiling at our TVs, you show us the polar bears and we buy the Cokes. Duh.
By losing wrestling, they’ll lose some of that halo. And in a age of 24-7 SportsCenter, of PEDs and millionaire athlete perks, that halo is a powerful product differentiator for fans and advertisers–the only one the Rings really have anymore.
I’m not worried, though. I give this decision less than a year. Why? Because people who don’t care at all about wrestling–like me–will care about it now. Why? Because this is the Olympics. And it’ll be a little less without it.