Pro wrestler Kurt Angle is on the short list of men I wouldn’t want to upset, and now the ’96 Olympic gold medalist (yes, he’s legit) is focusing all his efforts on returning his beloved sport to the Games, after it was recommended for removal by the IOC during a vote last month.
Angle has admitted that FILA, wrestling’s governing body, dropped the ball by not being represented at last month’s meeting, and now he’s concerned that just being one of the original sports won’t be enough to get back in the Games.
“It’s all about politics and money, and there’s no more tradition or history…" Angle told the Boston Globe Thursday. “Or at least that’s the way it’s basically perceived now.”
But he believes the adjustments necessary for the sport to retain its Olympic status through upcoming votes are simple, including going back to scoring points instead of rounds, finding a stable set of rules that would simplify the event, and even encouraging displays of emotion and trash-talking.
He’d even support seeing MMA enter the Olympics, although he admits it would probably need to be a “watered-down, diluted version” of the knockdown, drag out sport.
But for now, until the IOC executive board votes this May on which sports will make their pitch at yet another meeting in September, Angle has done all he can to rally support, including regularly tweeting to his more than 200,000 followers with the hashtag #SaveOlympicWrestling.
“The Olympics is not really about the sport, it’s about the story behind the person,” he said. “You keep the sport relatively simple to understand — let the fans understand that a takedown is 1 point, a turn is 2, a pin and the match is over. Keep it simple, and keep the story on the individual.”