Rio 2016 Olympic Update (Day 14)
Every two years the sports world takes a backseat to the world of the Olympics as sports fans take two weeks to watch the biggest sporting event in the world.
Every two years the International Olympic Committee also descends on the host city and begins discussions on the future of the game.
There are the constant meetings with would-be hosts that try to convince committee members that they are the best option for future games.
There are also the constant updates on where the IOC wants the Olympics to go, like this year when they continued to preach that future Olympics must cost less.
Then there are important meetings regarding the future of the programs in the Olympic Games.
This is where they make the decision on what sports will be included in the next Olympic Games.
This year the IOC made a decision to include a number of new sports in the programme.
The new sports will be included in the Tokyo Olympics in 2020 and they will add some new life to the programme.
The new sports will include the return of baseball/softball, which is sure to be a hit in Tokyo, along with skateboarding, karate, competitive climbing, and surfing.
They will be some interesting sports to watch in 2020 as they should add some extra thrills to the programme with some younger life to the games as well.
The debate over what sports to be included is far from a new one as there are always more sports wanting to get their chance on such a big stage.
In an age when the Olympics are trying to get leaner though the addition of sports always means the exclusion of sports to make room.
That usually means a group of people who are not too happy with the fact that their biggest competition is gone.
For a number of sports that is never the reality though as the Olympics established a rule long ago to keep the sports that started the games.
These core sports are sports that are never up for debate as they will always be a part of the games and cannot be removed.
They are sports that had been a part of the games since the beginning and as a result, the IOC always wanted them to be a part of the games going forward.
That was until 2013 when the IOC made the decision to eliminate one of the core sports in order to reduce the number of sports in the programme.
The organisation did a study to look at what sport would become vulnerable to being left out of the programme.
After looking at the popularity and the participants around the world the IOC decided the wrestling would be the core sport to no longer be a part of the group.
Immediately the outrage began as wrestling was a sport that could be linked back to the very start of the games.
Back before the Olympics were the Olympics, people were wrestling and without the sport there may not be a games today.
That history didn’t matter to the IOC though as they removed it from the core sports forcing it to vie for a spot in the 2020 Olympics by a vote.
The wrestling community was in shock as all of a sudden the biggest tournament in the wrestling world was taken away.
For centuries the Olympics wee the peak of wrestling and now they were at risk of never going to the Olympics.
Luckily for wrestling the vote came down to approve them in the 2020 Olympics extending the life of wrestling for at least another Olympic cycle.
It will be like this for the future though as Olympic wrestling will now have to go through the same process as every other sport in the games.
In any four-year stretch, they may be eliminated from the Olympic programme taking away one of the building blocks of the Olympics.
It is a bad position for a sport that has such a long history and the only hope is that they can stay among the sports for the foreseeable future.
The Canadian Story:
Repeat Performance
The Canadian Women’s Soccer Team captured the imagination of Canada in London when they won the bronze medal after a controversial semi-finals and this year they repeated their performance this time beating the home Brazilians for the bronze
Consolation Prize
Andre De Grasse earned his third medal of his first ever games but it didn’t come easily as the Canadian 4x100m relay team took the bronze after the US team was disqualified from the race moving the Canadians up a spot
Worth the Wait
Equestrian is a sport that is not necessarily for the young and Eric Lamaze proves that as at the age of 48 he earned another medal for the Canadians after taking the bronze medal in the individual jumping event
Controversy On Day 14
The Canadians started the day well when Evan Dunfee took a bronze medal in the 50km walk after a protest that claimed that he was bumped and knocked off stride by Hirooki Arai but only a few hours after the race Dunfee’s medal was taken away when a Japanese protest was successful
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Day 14 Medal Results: |
Day 15 Medal Events: |
| Athletics Men’s 50km Walk 1. Matej Tóth (SVK) 2. Jared Tallent (AUS) 3. Hirooki Arai (JPN) Men’s 4x100m Relay 1. Jamaica 2. Japan 3. Canada Men’s Hammer Throw 1. Dilshod Nazarov (TJK) 2. Ivan Tsikhan (BLR) 3. Wojciech Nowicki (POL) Women’s 20km Walk 1. Liu Hong (CHN) 2. Maria Guadalupe González (MEX) 3. Lü Xiuzhi (CHN) Women’s 5000m 1. Vivian Cheruiyot (KEN) 2. Hellen Onsando Obiri (KEN) 3. Almaz Ayana (ETH) Women’s 4x100m Relay 1. USA 2. Jamaica 3. Great Britain Women’s Pole Vault 1. Ekaterini Stefanidi (GRE) 2. Sandi Morris (USA) 3. Eliza McCartney (NZL) Badminton Boxing Cycling (BMX) Equestrian Field Hockey Modern Pentathlon Soccer/Football Synchronized Swimming Taekwondo Water Polo Wrestling |
Athletics Men’s 1500m Men’s 5000m Men’s 4x400m Relay Men’s Javelin Throw Women’s 800m Women’s 4x400m Relay Women’s High Jump Women’s Triathlon Badminton Basketball Boxing Canoe/Kayak Sprint Cycling (Mountain) Diving Golf Handball Modern Pentathlon Rhythmic Gymnastics Soccer/Football Taekwondo Water Polo Wrestling |
The Sport Addiction 