olympic sports

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Russian wrestling chief says he is ready to plead his sport's case before the International Olympic Committee executive committee meeting next week, hoping to save wrestling as an Olympic discipline. Full story: The president of the Russian Wrestling Federation said on Monday (May 20) that he was ready to appeal to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to save the sport from being struck from future games. The IOC executive committee decided in February to drop wrestling from the 2020 Games programme. Federation President Mikhail Mamiashvili said despite competition, wrestling powerhouse nations were united in saving their sport. [Mikhail Mamiashvili, Russian Wrestling Federation President]: (Male Russian) "Currently we are all united in one thing: that without keeping wrestling in the Olympic family, all our aspirations, all that history and all that heritage that we have today will effectively go to dust. And unfortunately, unfortunately, and I can't bear even the very thought that it all may happen at the time that we (wrestling) are in the avant garde of the sports movement." The sport, which featured in the first modern Olympics in 1896 and every Games since apart from 1900, has joined seven other candidates battling for one spot in a revamped program. Wrestlers were told to bring changes to their sport, adapt to a new environment and make it more suitable for television audience if they wanted to remain in the Olympics. [Mikhail Mamiashvili, Russian Wrestling Federation President]: (Male Russian) "To put it mildly, we tried to do everything we could for the IOC to listen to us, for the executive committee to listen to us: that yes, we are indeed changing, that yes, we do indeed want to keep pace with modern sports, with the modern Olympic movement, that we want to live according to the moral principles and to the letter of the IOC. We have tried to do that. I hope we have been heard." The IOC said 25 of the 26 Olympic sports were elected as core sports for the 2020 Games which will also include rugby and golf, making their first appearance in 2016. Wrestling joins baseball and softball, making a joint bid, martial arts karate and wushu, rollersports, wakeboarding, squash and sports climbing as candidates for the one open spot. For more news and videos visit ☛ ‪http://english.ntdtv.com Follow us on Twitter ☛ ‪http://twitter.com/NTDTelevision Add us on Facebook ☛ ‪http://me.lt/9P8MUn‬‬‬‬‬‬