Local coaches bemoan drop of wrestling from Olympics By BILL PEMSTEIN lcjedit@lakecountyjournal.com When the state high school freestyle wrestling meet convenes, the stands are so full it’s hard to find a place to sit. So when the news came out that the International Olympic Committee was dropping wrestling as an Olympic sport beginning in 2020, local high school coaches weren’t happy. They say the sport will continue in this country, but that the world is losing one of the oldest sports ever practiced at the Olympics. Officially, it was a sport in the modern Olympics beginning in 1896. Estimates also put the sport in the ancient Olympics as far back as 708 B.C. “I still don’t know the reason,’’ said Grayslake Central wrestling coach Dan Catanzano. “Someone had an agenda. It must have been political pressure. Wrestling is cheap. It is a huge moneymaker... There are more countries that have wrestling.” The Olympic committee mentioned that the turnout at the wrestling events in London was below expectations. Another local coach, Warren’s Jim Ouimette, agrees with Catanzano. “It is very disappointing that they made that decision,’’ Ouimette said. “Wrestling is one of the oldest Olympic sports and despite modest popularity in the US, is very popular in other countries. Representing the United States in the Olympics is the ultimate goal of elite wrestlers and is what many top college wrestlers go on to do.”
Catanzano noted this sport dates back to nearly the beginning of time.”This goes back to the original thought process,’’ he said. “We can swim against each other or I will grab you and throw you down. That’s the biggest shame of it. It was a shock.” Representatives of the wrestling sport can ask to rejoin come 2020 but that also is viewed a quite the long shot. The question is raised. Will it really affect wrestling in Gurnee and Grayslake? “We are still competing,’’ Catanzaro said. “It had a very little effect on my team.” Ouimette, too, believes this decision won’t wreck his program at Warren. “It is great for our sport to be able to have those dreams, but I do not think that it will end wrestling in this country,’’ he said. “We will continue to compete and find new ways and organizations to compete at the Olympic level.” Wrestling is competing against the likes of baseball and softball. Also in contention for an Olympic sport are karate, squash, roller sports, sports climbing, wake boarding and wushi, a martial arts program. Ouimette thinks his favorite sport compares favorably with all the sports listed. “I do think that other sports could have been dropped with less impact on the number of athletes that will be affected by this decision,’’ he said. “I am not sure that it will have a huge impact outside of the wrestling community, but we are very upset.”
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Lake County Journal / LakeCountyJournal.com • Edition of March 28-April 3, 2013
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Wrestling is included in many local high school sports programs. Local high school wrestling coaches, Dan Catanzano and Jim Ouimette, express their disappointment that the sport will no longer be in the Olympics as of 2020.
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