We are not international purveyors of athletic competitions, so we don't pretend to know the minds or responsibilities of members of the executive board of the International Olympic Committee.

But we know what we don't like. And we don't like the announcement yesterday that the board has recommended dropping wrestling as a sport from the 2020 Olympic Games.

Wrestling? We can well imagine the rampage our late newsroom colleague and longtime wrestling supporter and writer, Dan Sernoffsky, would be having to say about now. Actually, he'd probably be writing this piece filled with far greater outrage than we can muster.

We'll carry the (Olympic) torch for him as well as we're able.

Wrestling was a part of the ancient Olympic Games. The ones that occurred when Greece was still worshipping Zeus and Hera. While original events focused on running, it wasn't long before martial sports - like boxing and wrestling - became part of the mix.

Any event that had a place in the ancient Olympic Games would seem to us to have the ultimate grandfather clause for being included in our modern games, in perpetuity.

We'll make an exception for chariot racing, but otherwise, if the events were contested and dedicated to the honor of the ancient gods, it hardly seems right that anyone has the authority to put such an event on the shelf.

No, wrestling belongs in the Olympic Games. It belonged in ancient times; belonged since the re-creation of the Olympic games first contested - in Athens, logically and rightfully - in 1896; and continuing long beyond 2020.


There are seven other events that are going to be fighting for their lives for inclusion in the games beyond 2020.


Wait, what?

We have problems with the inclusion of a couple other events on that list. Karate is also a martial art with an ancient history and modern applications. It's not a European art, but that doesn't detract from its significance. It's the kind of event, had the original games been contested in Japan instead of Greece, that would have been included. It, too, should be allowed to hold place in the games.

Wushu (and we admit we had to look it up) is a Chinese martial art. See our argument regarding karate above.

But wakeboarding? Wakeboarding? And sport climbing? Really?

They don't quite strike us as having millennia of significance to any particular world culture. They don't strike us as having martial applications that would make sense as a basis for competition. We're sure they have their fans, and we humans will make a competition out of anything, but we can't fathom agreeing with an argument that such events belong in the Olympics, especially if they supplant things like wrestling.

Wrestling. There is hardly a more basic individual competition that can be conceived, other than running. The ancient Greeks knew that. That's why both events came to be a part of their games.

The organizers of the modern Olympics knew that from the start.

Today's IOC executive board has apparently forgotten it. Somebody needs a semi-gentle half-nelson to spur either memory or better sense. We're sure there are some volunteers - many of them world-class wrestlers- who'd take us up on the idea.