Olympics: IOC Chooses Wrestling, Squash, And Baseball / Softball As Finalists Vying To Be Recognized Sports in The 2020 Games

With only one slot available, the sports of squash, baseball/softball, and wrestling beat out wushu (a form of Chinese martial arts), wakeboarding, roller sports, karate, and sports climbing, as they all vied to be recognized as an event at the 2020 Olympic Games.

"It was never going to be an easy decision," said International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Jacques Rogge. "But I feel my colleagues on the board made a good decision in selecting baseball/softball, squash and wrestling to be put forward in Buenos Aires."

Space opened up after the IOC dropped wrestling this past February (though they were allowed to re-apply). Baseball and softball were dropped as individual sports after the 2008 Beijing Games, while squash was seeking to be a part of the games for the first time.

Each international federation was given 30 minutes to make their case in front of the IOC board.

The exclusion of wrestling, one of the original sports that made its first Olympic appearance in 708 B.C., caught many by surprise.

"We had the opportunity to have a second chance to compete," said FILA (the international wrestling federation) director Nenad Lalovic, after the IOC made their announcement. "We took the opportunity. We won the first match but there is another one to fight."

The fight to keep wrestling as Olympic sport drew an eclectic and unlikely group of supports to the cause. The U.S., Iran, and Russia federations have put aside their differences to get the sport back into the Games.

Both Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) President Dana White and Bellator Fighting Championship CEO, Bjorn Rebney - direct business - competitors, fired up their fans, asking them to be vocal about the disappointment of the sport being taken out of the Games.

"The international experience I had though USA Wrestling couldn't be duplicated anywhere else, and it led me to where I am today," said current Bellator welterweight champion, Ben Askren - a four-time All-American and two-time NCAA champion. "Without it, who knows where I would have ended up, and where so many other kids who use wrestling as a springboard to learn life's skills will end up in the future, it's really scary to think about."

Henry Cejudo, the youngest Olympic wrestling gold medalist ever, also credits the discipline of wresting as a launchpad to bigger and better things.

"I love being an ambassador for the sport and will do whatever I can to keep it in the Olympics," says Cejudo. "My message to young Latinos is clear; wrestling is a sport with no boundaries, it teaches you self respect, hard work and discipline and you can succeed on your own, as well as take those skills and apply them to any area of life where you want to be successful. It changed my life and it can certainly help change yours."

Incomprehensible rules and a vague scoring system, which confused even the most hardcore wrestling fan, made it easy for the IOC to drop the sport.

"We needed this wake-up call and the changes to the sport probably 20 years ago, so we are pleased with the progress we have made," says Jim Scherr, a former bronze medal Olympic wrestler and former head of the US Olympic Committee who is now a key member of the Committee to Preserve Olympic Wrestling (CPOW). "The changes we made were a good next step, but our goal is to be back on the program in 2020 and 2024 and to do that we have to keep fighting until the vote in Argentina in September."

Squash, seeking to be an Olympic sport for the first time, has the support of the Sports England - a government agency who has pledged to contribute £5m ($7,609,000) to help sustain the sport of squash.

"All of the other notable racket sports are in the Games already - tennis, badminton and table tennis - but squash has been overlooked in the past;" said Laura Massaro, the current British Open champion. "It has been tough to take when you compete at the highest level on the world stage."

Jay Whitehead, CEO of Tickets-for-Charity.com, who has insight on the "empty seat" situation the London Games faced, believes that squash will have problems making it's case to become Olympic sport.

"Squash has an audience problem," says Whitehead. "The audiences are so small that the broadcast revenue and ticket sales potential is virtually zero."

Perhaps the biggest surprise was the inclusion of baseball / softball. The IOC has been at odds with Major League Baseball since the league has said they will not stop their season, much like the NHL does when they send their players to the Winter Games, to permit their players to compete in the Olympics.

"I think the World Baseball Classic in MLB's mind has replaced the Olympics because the Olympics come in the summer," said Washington Nationals manager, Davey Johnson, who managed the 2008 Olympic team. "I don't think there's any hope for the Olympics having our major leaguers in it. I just don't think it will happen and that's unfortunate."

Don Porter, co-president of World Baseball Softball Confederation, doesn't understand where this talk about shutting down the league for the Olympics came from.

"We never asked the commissioner or anyone in MLB to shut the season down," Porter said. "We're working towards a system where we can do that without Major League Baseball shutting down the season because we understand the economics of the situation. We know that's not practical."