Will it be squash or wrestling?
The battle for the final spot at the 2020 Olympics has entered its business end with wrestling, squash and a joint bid from baseball-softball hoping to emerge stronger from their existence crisis when the International Olympic Committee will take a call on their future on Sunday.
The crucial vote during the 125th IOC session in Buenos Aires will see the culmination of a contest that began two years ago. One sport will join the 2020 Summer Games while the others will be left to ponder about their future outside of the Olympic programme.
Squash seems to be a front-runner in the battle of survival after the World Squash Federation, headed by N. Ramachandran, delivered a dynamic and television-friendly presentation to the IOC executive board in Russia on May 29 before being shortlisted for Sunday’s vote.
This is the third consecutive bid by squash to join the Games and the journey to get here has been a long one — 10 years in fact — having failed in 2005 in Singapore and 2009 in Denmark. The WSF delegation is hopeful that its case to join the Games will succeed.
On the other hand, nearly seven months after wrestling was dealt a severe blow by the IOC, the world body, Fila, has made sweeping amendments to make the sport more spectator-friendly and paved the way for greater participation of women in decision making bodies. The body also put forth an equal number of weight categories for women from next Olympics onwards as compared to men who participate in greco-roman and freestyle wrestling.
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