Eagle26 Posted April 13 Share Posted April 13 After I went on a rant in the Vito thread, I came across this article about the fan fest at OTT. This is on the schedule for Friday… “4:00-4:30 – Expansion of Olympic Weight Classes, State of Wrestling Internationally Discussion - USA Wrestling Executive Director Rich Bender with WIN Magazine’s Bryan Van Kley” https://www.themat.com/news/2024/april/12/fan-fest-set-between-sessions-at-u-s-olympic-team-trials-across-street-at-pegula-ice-arena-with-food-drink-vendors-signings-more Please, Please, Please let it not be just speculation! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CHROMEBIRD Posted April 13 Share Posted April 13 Hopefully the half hour discussion isn't "no" followed by 29 minutes 59 seconds of awkward silence 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RYou Posted April 13 Share Posted April 13 not a chance of it happening. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nhs67 Posted April 13 Share Posted April 13 We will lose a style before we gain weight classes at the Olympics and it might not be MGR that is the one that is cut. 1 "I know actually nothing. It isn't even conjecture at this point." - me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CHROMEBIRD Posted April 13 Share Posted April 13 I seem to remember folks saying it's more likely that we see the Olympics add beach wrestling before adding any more weights 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FanOfPurdueWrestling Posted April 14 Share Posted April 14 I don’t get how we can’t get a full 10 weights, they’re already doing the event, paying for venue, promotion(?), mats, referees, TV/streaming, etc. the cost of adding weights is much less than the cost of adding a new sport or whatever’s 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eagle26 Posted April 14 Author Share Posted April 14 5 hours ago, RYou said: not a chance of it happening. 2 hours ago, nhs67 said: We will lose a style before we gain weight classes at the Olympics and it might not be MGR that is the one that is cut. Why do you guys think the executive director of USA is going to be talking about it if there’s no chance of it ever happening? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nhs67 Posted April 14 Share Posted April 14 4 minutes ago, Eagle26 said: Why do you guys think the executive director of USA is going to be talking about it if there’s no chance of it ever happening? The IOC could care less what the USA Wrestling Executive Director is doing at any singular point in his past, present, or future lives. They won't even leave him on Read. His emails to them don't even get opened except when they select all and Mark All as Read. 1 "I know actually nothing. It isn't even conjecture at this point." - me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nhs67 Posted April 14 Share Posted April 14 Anyone who doesn't understand that we are closer to 4 weights instead of 10 has not been paying attention. 1 "I know actually nothing. It isn't even conjecture at this point." - me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Husker_Du Posted April 14 Share Posted April 14 you have no idea what you're talking about. 1 TBD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RockLobster Posted April 14 Share Posted April 14 1 hour ago, Husker_Du said: you have no idea what you're talking about. Interesting perspective. And it's based on what? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Former158 Posted April 14 Share Posted April 14 (edited) It might be controversial but would fans be in favor of 12-15 weights if it meant only one style (ie freestyle). For instance in the growing field of women's wrestling, I don't think we will ever add women's greco? Edited April 14 by Former158 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eagle26 Posted April 14 Author Share Posted April 14 7 hours ago, Husker_Du said: you have no idea what you're talking about. Well at least @nhs67 is honest about it in his sig In all seriousness, I can’t imagine that USA wrestling put this on the schedule at their Fan Fest to make an announcement that it’s never going to happen. That would be a pretty unpopular session for a fan fest lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eagle26 Posted April 14 Author Share Posted April 14 1 hour ago, Former158 said: It might be controversial but would fans be in favor of 12-15 weights if it meant only one style (ie freestyle). For instance in the growing field of women's wrestling, I don't think we will ever add women's greco? 12-15 weights is overkill and probably not going to happen. However, IF IOC is stuck on 18 weights total, theoretically, you could go 9 weights each for Men’s and Women’s freestyle and dump Greco. Personally, I would rather have that than what we have now because I am not a Greco fan. However, there are a lot of Greco fans out there (especially in other parts of the world), so I don’t think it’s the right thing to do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nhs67 Posted April 14 Share Posted April 14 1 hour ago, Eagle26 said: Well at least @nhs67 is honest about it in his sig In all seriousness, I can’t imagine that USA wrestling put this on the schedule at their Fan Fest to make an announcement that it’s never going to happen. That would be a pretty unpopular session for a fan fest lol. You do understand that USA Wrestling is not the IOC? I was being dramatic to be dramatic before. I need you to understand, though, that the IOC does what the IOC does and that what USA Wrestling says or does has very little to no effect on that. "I know actually nothing. It isn't even conjecture at this point." - me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nhs67 Posted April 14 Share Posted April 14 (edited) 3 hours ago, Former158 said: It might be controversial but would fans be in favor of 12-15 weights if it meant only one style (ie freestyle). For instance in the growing field of women's wrestling, I don't think we will ever add women's greco? I think were we to add Women's Greco we would see a reduction to four weight classes per style. That would make 16 weights with 4 medals per weight compared to 18 weights with 4 medals per weight that we curtently have. Edit: Speaking purely Olympics not UWW. I could also see 5 per for Olympics. Edited April 14 by nhs67 "I know actually nothing. It isn't even conjecture at this point." - me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eagle26 Posted April 14 Author Share Posted April 14 1 hour ago, nhs67 said: You do understand that USA Wrestling is not the IOC? I was being dramatic to be dramatic before. I need you to understand, though, that the IOC does what the IOC does and that what USA Wrestling says or does has very little to no effect on that. Of course we all understand that (or we all should). The point of this thread is that it appears USA wrestling is making an announcement about the expansion of Olympic weights. That doesn’t mean they were the ones in charge of any decisions, but they may have some inside info about potential changes after this cycle. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nhs67 Posted April 14 Share Posted April 14 44 minutes ago, Eagle26 said: Of course we all understand that (or we all should). The point of this thread is that it appears USA wrestling is making an announcement about the expansion of Olympic weights. That doesn’t mean they were the ones in charge of any decisions, but they may have some inside info about potential changes after this cycle. We can only hope. "I know actually nothing. It isn't even conjecture at this point." - me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CHROMEBIRD Posted April 15 Share Posted April 15 My impression is that wrestling is in far better shape to avoid the chopping block (plus, no more corrupt Pentathlon voting), but adding weights seems like a stretch. If you look at the IOC's voting criteria wrestling has done a pretty good job in competition format, governance, representation, and legacy but I don't know if the needle has moved significantly in the one criteria that matters most to the IOC, popularity. UWW would really need to to improve ticket sales, attendance, TV & digital viewership, and revenue to justify more weight classes. The IOC also considers the popularity of a sport in the hosting country. Wrestling might be OK for LA 2028 but might have some work to do before Brisbane in 2032. UWW has time though, and I think MMA and maybe some of the other styles are popular in Australia. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AgaveMaria Posted April 15 Share Posted April 15 Right after we see a singing choir of pigs from Iowa performing at Carnegie Hall. ” Never attribute to inspiration that which can be adequately explained by delusion”. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MPhillips Posted April 15 Share Posted April 15 52 minutes ago, AgaveMaria said: choir of pigs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Voice of the Quakers Posted April 15 Share Posted April 15 I believe the biggest issue is the number of athletes at the summer games. Target right now is ~10,500 and the IOC does not want the event to be any bigger athlete-wise. As the IOC seeks to add more sports, roster cuts will come from other sports. It is far more likely that the IOC will seek to cut more weight classes from wrestling than to add weight classes. Before anyone asks whether it would make sense to add more weight classes and reduce the entries per weight class, I would ask if anyone really wants to see an 8 or 12 man bracket. Qualification would be comically difficult. Wrestling is not the only sport that feels this pressure. I've previously mentioned that taekwondo is down to four weight classes (men's HWY is 80+ KGs). Even women's gymnastics has seen reduced competitors, with team competitions changed from "6 up, 5 count" to "3 up, 3 count" per appartus. Dan McDonald, Penn '93 danmc167@yahoo.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FWwrestling Posted April 16 Share Posted April 16 16 hours ago, Voice of the Quakers said: I believe the biggest issue is the number of athletes at the summer games. Target right now is ~10,500 and the IOC does not want the event to be any bigger athlete-wise. As the IOC seeks to add more sports, roster cuts will come from other sports. It is far more likely that the IOC will seek to cut more weight classes from wrestling than to add weight classes. Before anyone asks whether it would make sense to add more weight classes and reduce the entries per weight class, I would ask if anyone really wants to see an 8 or 12 man bracket. Qualification would be comically difficult. Wrestling is not the only sport that feels this pressure. I've previously mentioned that taekwondo is down to four weight classes (men's HWY is 80+ KGs). Even women's gymnastics has seen reduced competitors, with team competitions changed from "6 up, 5 count" to "3 up, 3 count" per appartus. Is there any reason for why swimming gets so many events and athletes? Is it just simply TV popularity? Is it a governing body issue? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wildcat92 Posted April 16 Share Posted April 16 They could cut about half the swimming events to make room for 4 more weights in freestyle 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CHROMEBIRD Posted April 16 Share Posted April 16 6 hours ago, FWwrestling said: Is there any reason for why swimming gets so many events and athletes? Is it just simply TV popularity? Is it a governing body issue? Swimming races are pretty quick. Good question about the number of athletes, though. Track too. But both are more digestible and likely have much stronger attendance, viewership, and revenue than wrestling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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