Olympics to lose Wrestling by 2020 Games?

The International Olympic Committee, IOC, announced they're recommending dropping wrestling from the 2020 Games, Reuters reported.

The news comes as a shock, as the sports has been a part of the Olympics since 1896. 

The IOC is expected to give the entire program a face-lift by making seven other sports compete for the top spot.

"This is not the end of the process, this is purely a recommendation," IOC spokesman Mark Adams told reporters at a board meeting. "It is the session which is sovereign." "It was a decision to look at the core sports, what works best for the Olympic games. This was the best program for the 2020 Olympics. This is not about what's wrong with wrestling but what is good for the Games."

The sports company, FILA, is expected to make an argument on behalf of the sport to stop the board's recommendation.

Each of the 15 executive board members reviewed 39 criteria including popularity, tickets sold, anti-doping, governance and other finances before they secretly made a vote. Canoeing was voted to leave first because of its low score, then taekwondo second. Wrestling was voted with eight votes while hockey and pentathlon were tied with three votes.

The seven other sports preparing to make a motion for the top inclusion are baseball and softball, karate, squash, roller sports, sport climbing, wakeboarding and wushu. Baseball and softball were eliminated in 2005.

In last year's London Games, wrestling had 344 athletes competing in freestyle and Greco-Roman events, according to Sporting News Fanhouse.

The committee also elected 25 sports, including rugby and golf, as the core for 2020 Games.

"In the last few years we acted and took decisions to make our sport more telegenic and more compact," Schormann told Reuters in an interview. "So every good news is further motivation for us."