Established over 7,000 years ago, wrestling was believed to be the first sport practiced. Like its cagey participants, wrestling has overcome immense challenges. The present predicament of remaining an Olympic sport is wrestling’s greatest struggle yet. After great debate and vote for exclusion, wrestling was replaced back into the 2016 Games, but this doesn’t mean that wrestling’s place in history is safe. Many on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) will continue campaigning for wrestling’s extinction. They were almost successful in removing it from the 2016 Olympics, why not try again? However, I believe that wrestling has an important and appropriate role in these great games
Wrestling deserves a protected spot in the Olympics for…show more content… This is another reason why it must stay in all the Olympic games yet to come. I personally have wrestled for two years, and after my experience, not only is every other sport that I play much easier, but everything I do is easier. In fact, both of my wrestling coaches both said many times during the season, that wrestling in general has made their lives easier. This is because the sport of wrestling teaches you pride, teaches you courage, teaches you loss, and teaches you success. For example, University of Iowa head coach and Olympic champion, Dan Gable once said, “Some have wrestled without great skill - none have wrestled without pride.” (Gable) This quote is a great summary of the sport of wrestling. It is a sport open to all skill levels, even both genders, but no matter how good or bad you are, you will be testing your courage and your pride every time you wrestle a match. Win or lose, you will always gain something. You see, wrestling is beneficial because it prepares you for the long run. You don’t have teammates helping you during your S.A.T., or when you are trying to get a job. You are one-on-one with a serious challenge, by yourself, just like wrestling. If it were possible, I would wish that all junior high schools forced students to participate in wrestling. No matter the talent level, I can tell you as many other wrestlers can, that they will take something great from the sport and it will stay with them…show more content… Some may argue that it is not very entertaining, or too violent. I also understand that there is a limited number of sports in the Olympics, and that no matter what sport you place in the Olympic games, someone will be against it. It is just like creating a curriculum for a school district. There is no solution to fitting all the board members’ necessities for what should and should not be part of the curriculum. But, like the sport of wrestling, you will eventually look deep enough and find enough positives to end your dilemma. As for the violence issue, guess what! Boxing, which is another Olympic sport, is much more dangerous and violent than wrestling. A study done by the Department of Health Science, at Monash University, in Frankston, Victoria, Australia, concluded that in a 8 and a half year time span, with results gathered from 545 boxers, 214 injuries were noticed, That is 23.6 injuries per 100 matches. On the other hand, an article from the American Journal of Sports Medicine did a study for the wrestling injury rate, and concluded a rate of 2.33 injuries per 1,000 athlete-exposures. That is substantially lower than boxing’s injury rate. Therefor, wrestling is clearly not too violent. Also, the sport of boxing’s best competitor, Muhammad Ali, who only lost 5 professional matches, still ended up with brain damage and cannot even speak anymore. All the evidence shows that boxing, if anything, should be the