Wrestling To Return To 2020 Summer Olympics In Tokyo After IOC Vote, Beating Out Baseball, Softball And Squash

Wrestling will make a return to the Olympics after a majority of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) voted on Sunday for the sport to take a spot in the 2020 Summer Olympic Games.

After presentations were made by the Federation of Associated Wrestling Styles, the World Baseball Softball Confederation and the World Squash Federation, the IOC held a vote to decide which sport would be added to the 2020 Summer Olympic Games roster.

According to a press release by the IOC, wrestling received the majority of the votes in the first round with 49 votes, followed by Baseball and softball with 24 votes and squash with 22 votes.

The decision was made by the IOC at its 125^th session in Buenos Aires, Argentina after they decided on the 25 core sports that will form the 2020 Games, which was recently awarded to the city of Tokyo, Japan.

“I would like to offer my congratulations to the International Federation of Associated Wrestling Styles,” said IOC President Jacques Rogge in a statement. “Wrestling has shown great passion and resilience in the last few months. They have taken a number of steps to modernize and improve their sport, including the addition of more women and athletes in decision-making positions, rule changes to make the sport more exciting and easy to understand and an increase in the number of women’s competitions. We are pleased with their reaction and happy to have wrestling on the Olympic program in 2020 and 2024.”

In 2002, the number of sports at the Olympic Games was capped at 28 sports. In 2007, this cap was further modified to a core group of 25 sports and three additional rotating sports.

Let us know what you think about this new development for the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in the comments.