Exclusive: Sport Climbing President Slams IOC’s “incomprehensible” Decision to Reinstate Wrestling

By Steve Moorhouse

The President of the International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC) has said that the decision to reinstate Wrestling into the Olympic Games is ‘incomprehensible.’

Sport Climbing was one of the eight sports campaigning to be included in the 2020 Olympic Games, anabolics but was eventually cut at the SportAccord Convention in May.

Now, shop IFSC President Marco Scolaris has slammed the decision to bring back Wrestling after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) dropped the sport from their core list in February.

Speaking exclusively to iSportconnect, malady Scolaris said: “All the process is incomprehensible. How could a sport proposed for exclusion in February be proposed for inclusion in May and confirmed in September? It was said that –due to the first decision in February – the sport has deeply changed and now is new and ready. But if so, did we need such a complicated itinerary?

“Did the IOC not have the authority and the power to force changes they considered important for the quality of the sport and consequently of the Games in a much simpler way? Issuing a yellow card to FILA in front of the world would have been cheap and easy and would have saved not only wrestling, but also the image and the strength of the institution itself.

“At the same time it would have saved a lot of energies and resources spent by the shortlisted IFs and by several IOC bodies.”

Scolaris did however add that he was ‘happy’ for wrestlers around the world and compared the sport to his own.

Wrestling was elected ahead of Baseball/Softball and Squash at the 125^th IOC Session in Buenos Aires on Sunday.

The original list of sports competing to be included in the 2020 Olympic Games was Sport Climbing, Wrestling, Baseball/Softball, Squash, Karate, Wakeboarding, Wushu and Roller Sports.