International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge on Friday defended the organisation’s dramatic U-turn on wrestling.
Having removed the ancient sport from the 2020 summer Games programme in February, the IOC then included it on Wednesday, three months later, on a short-list of three sports competing for inclusion in those Games.
“I don’t see any shortcomings in the system, I don’t see any errors in the system,” said Rogge at the end of a three-day executive board meeting in St Petersburg.
He added: “We do not go for change for the sake of change. We only go for a review of the Olympic programme periodically to take the decision to lead the best Olympic programme.
“I cannot forsee the future, (the IOC session) won’t go for a new one (sport) just for the sake of a new one. Novelty is not the issue, quality is the issue.”
Wrestling was part of the original ancient Olympic Games in 708BC and since the modern Games were resumed in Athens in 1896, it has only once been left off the programme, in 1900.
Now it has been placed on a shortlist alongside baseball-softball and squash to compete for a single berth.
The winning sport will be voted on during the IOC session in Buenos Aires in September, when the host city for the 2020 Games will also be decided.
Rogge praised the International wrestling Federation for its reaction to being initially dumped back in February.
But he said that criticism and complaints would have been directed at the IOC no matter which sport or sports came under threat.
“If you look at the reaction of the federation to their admitted shortcomings, the international federation drastically changed its own governance, including women in the executive board – which was a criticism of the report from the IOC – changing the format of the competition, changing the presentation,” he said.
“Had we decided to eliminate another sport from the core sports, such as modern pentathlon, we would have been criticised for having betrayed the legacy of Pierre de Coubertin, who invented the sport.
“Had we decided to eliminate taekwondo, we would have been accused of betraying the spirit of Asian sport, I mean we would have had criticism for any sport that would have been eliminated.”
Rogge defends wrestling U-turn
