It would be nice to know the real reason behind the removal of wrestling from the 2020 Olympic games.
The International Olympic Committee, which made the decision, said the event is one of the least viewed Olympic events on television.
The IOC said it hopes to replace wrestling, one of 25 core Olympic games, with something that will attract a larger audience.
Rulon Gardner, the American who beat three-time Russian Olympic wrestling champion, Alexander Karelin, said, “It’s the IOC trying to change the Olympics to make it more mainstream and more viewer-friendly instead of sticking to what they founded the Olympics on.”
What’s not mainstream about wrestling?
This could never be true, since for all intensive purposes, televised wrestling shares ties with pornography, a piece of pop culture that is very widely received across the globe.
The whole concept of the sport is enticing to the masses. Wrestling is an one-on-one physical competition where each participant tries to assert the superior position. In fact, it’s a little like Dominance/Submission style sex in porn. So how could this core Olympic event possibly be one of the least viewed?
The Associated Press actually reported last week that wrestling “generates twice the TV audience worldwide” in comparison to the modern pentathlon.
Wrestling has always been privy to a certain level of traditional appreciation in the Olympics. The event has been a part of the games since the very first Olympics took place.
My thought is that if Bondage Dominance and Sadism & Masochism sex can break through, some (obviously not all) societal barriers, then wrestling can stand to survive criticism which labels the sport “unpopular” and “out-dated.”
It might be over-reaching to say that there is a direct link between viewers of any kind of porn with the enjoyment of the population of viewers who look forward to wrestling matches.
However, I think it is safe to say that there are similar attractions to it that are not exactly explicitly observable by participants.
Violence in general is difficult to not watch. The expression, “It’s like a train wreck,” didn’t come out of nowhere after all. There is something about the gore and the physical experience of those involved that draws our attention and holds it.
Not only are both porn and wrestling stimulating, but they are also both educational. Wrestlers watch matches to study positioning and technique; viewers of porn do the same.
My idea is not to say that wrestling should remain in the 2020 Olympics, which have not yet been awarded to a host city, rather it’s to challenge the notion that wrestling is among the least watched events in the Olympics. Former athletes, coaches and viewers in general are not thrilled with the decision to remove the sport they love almost as much as porn is loved world wide.
After all, what’s not to love? In wrestling, people get pounded in the ring; in porn, people get pounded in the ring.
Paige Pelonis is a sophomore journalism and international studies double major and a contributing writer for the Daily 49er.