01. 01. 2020
Wrestlers are in shock. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has removed one of the oldest sports under the five colored rings from the program of the 2020 Olympic Games. This is the official verdict of the IOC Executive Board from its meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland.
KOŠICE. The shock is also because modern pentathlon was considered the most likely to be removed from the current 26 Olympic sports. Wrestlers relied mainly on tradition, as their sport has been an Olympic classic since 1896... And it cannot be said that there was little interest in the events on the Olympic mats in London last year.
"This is sad news for wrestling. I am quite surprised by it myself. It is very bad. Wrestling has been an inseparable part of the Olympics since ancient Greece and then in their modern history. Slovak wrestling was also one of the more successful Slovak sports, both during the federal era and in the era of independence," said František Lengyel, Vice President of the Slovak Wrestling Federation (SZZ), reacting to the IOC's decision for the agencies.
"For Slovak wrestling, this is a huge minus. We lead our young boys in training with the idea that one of the huge motivations is the chance to compete at the Olympics. They will lose that this way. Then there is, of course, the financial dimension. The state supports Olympic sports, and although we are still in the program for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, we will probably be dropped afterwards. And that will probably be devastating for us."
Loss of motivation
They also still dreamed of the Olympics at the Košice 1904 Wrestling Club, and the negative impact of the IOC's decision will certainly be felt on its mats as well.
"The Olympics, that was basically the only goal that kept us alive," said the coach of the Košice senior team, Juraj Dancák Sr., in a sad voice.
"For those boys, it is not just Olympic motivation, but wrestling itself is also their livelihood. A guy like Dano Pálinkás has no other trade, and if he loses motivation, there will be nothing to keep him in Košice... Jakub Kačeňák, Majo Hutňan, and junior Mišo Bodnár, who is a joy to watch wrestle and progress, also have Olympic ambitions. Their last chance will be Rio de Janeiro 2016; they are 23 or 24 years old now, and at that Olympics, they would be at the ideal age," he said.
"The question is whether they will last, whether they will still have that much will, and whether we will still be able to motivate them financially. With wrestling being dropped from the Olympic Games program, there is another problem, because everything is also linked to financial resources, and wrestling will lose state support. I know that until now, Jakub Kačeňák received three thousand euros a year from the National Sports Center for preparation, Dano Pálinkás a thousand, and the juniors two thousand, but what will happen next, when wrestling is no longer an Olympic sport, I dare not predict."
"It probably won't threaten the activities of our club, that the youth will lose interest in wrestling, because you can't say that the interest in Košice is that great. We have few talented boys, and the conditions in Slovakia, and this does not only apply to our sport, are getting worse and worse. I give it maybe ten years, and we can pack it in," Juraj Dancák did not sound optimistic at all when he learned the hot news from Lausanne from us.
Read more: https://kosice.korzar.sme.sk/c/6700766/kosicanov-sokovalo-vyradenie-zapasenia-z-programu-olympijskych-hier.html#ixzz5OtAsdRUG