Exclusive: Squash & Baseball/Softball ‘cannot match’ Wrestling for 2020 Olympic Bid says Oswald

By Ismail Uddin

Denis Oswald, sale sale who is campaigning to be International Olympic Committee (IOC) President, has reiterated his belief that Wrestling will be in the 2020 Olympics as the other candidates ‘cannot match’ the ancient sport. 

Wrestling was demoted from the sports programme at the 2020 Olympics to the shock of many and has applied since for the one vacant spot available. 

They initially faced competition from Karate, Roller Sports, Sport Climbing, Wakeboarding and Wushu who were cut from consideration and now face Baseball/Softball and Squash for a 2020 place. 

Oswald, who has been an IOC member since 1991, reaffirmed his belief that Wrestling, which has been part of the Games since 1896 (except 1900), would likely be included due to its ease in accessibility and the changes FILA, the governing body, made following their demotion. 

“Wrestling is a very basic sport. To wrestle is probably as natural as throwing a ball or running. It is a sport which is not costly and is essential for a number of nations,” Oswald told iSportconnect exclusively. “In addition, FILA has now made the efforts that we expected, for example in the field of governance and gender equity.” 

“The other sports proposed are good and interesting, but they cannot match wrestling because a mistake was made with that sport and it has to be repaired.”

Oswald did however profess that if Wrestling was put back in there would be no new sport for the 2020 Olympics. 

He added: “The problem is that, at the end of the day, we will have no new sport on the programme and this is a pity.”

Oswald is competing against Thomas Bach, C.K Wu, Sergey Bubka, Richard Carrion and Ser Miang Ng for IOC Presidency.

The decision on which sport will be included in the 2020 Olympics will be made at the 125th IOC Session in September. The IOC will elect a new president during the session, on September 10, 2013

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