Raw deal, says wrestling boss
Modern pentathlon and taekwondo were tipped for the axe due to their lesser global appeal. Instead, it was wrestling that was booted out. Unlike the modern pentathlon and taekwondo, which had their representatives in the IOC EB, wrestling did not, and this might have tilted the balance of the votes against the latter.
Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr, a member of IOC’s EB, is also the vice-president of UIPM, modern pentathlon’s governing body while Ching-Kuo Wu, another EB member, was formerly an executive member of the Asian Taekwondo Union.
Martinetti criticised the one-sided verdict saying that wrestling was dropped not on the basis of low popularity, but due to a clash of interest inside the executive body. “It is unfair on FILA and wrestling as a sport that we were up against sports disciplines whose members were sitting on the IOC’s executive body. We had no representation there. We had no chance,” the Swiss told The Indian Express a day after the decision to drop wrestling was taken.
“A week before the executive board meeting, I had spoken to IOC director general (Christoff de
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