Schools

Olympics Drop Wrestling: Will Oconee Wrestling Programs Feel the Impact?

Oconee County High School just had its best state wrestling performance ever.

Wrestlers from Oconee County High School just finished third in the class AAA state duals last weekend -- the school's best finish ever. But come 2020, Oconee's high school wrestlers won't have the world's foremost competetive arena to aspire to.

The International Olympic Committee announced this week that it's removing the sport from the Summer Games, starting in 2020.

The committee agreed to pare down the 26 sports it features to 25 so that a new sport could join the lineup. Wrestling has a chance to make it back into the Olympics, but the Los Angeles Times said that was unlikely now that it has been cut.

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Should the Olympics drop wrestling as an event? What impact will this have on high school wrestling programs? Tell us in the comments.

Wrestling in the Olympics started with the ancient Games in 708 B.C., and became a staple of the modern Olympics, beginning in Athens, Greece in 1896.

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A report by the IOC program commission said TV ratings and ticket sales are among the criteria used by the panel, according to ESPN.

Among the sports being kept in the Olympics is modern pentathlon, a combination of fencing, horse riding, swimming, running and shooting. It has been an Olympic sport since 1912.

At the 2012 Olympic Games in London, 71 countries participated in wrestling, while just 26 nations competed in modern pentathlon.


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