Wrestling, squash or baseball and softball? As the International Olympic Commitee mulls the inclusion of an additional sport for the 2020 Olympics programme — the final decision for which will be taken in its ongoing 125th Session in Buenos Aires on Sunday — India’s wrestling and squash fraternity are hoping to get lucky.
“The international wrestling body (Fila) has made all the necessary changes that the IOC wanted. I see no reason why wrestling would not make a comeback,” India’s medal-winning grappler Sushil Kumar said.
“I think wrestling would come out even more stronger after it gets the backing of the IOC members. The ancient sport has done a lot to garner support of fans for its bid to be in the 2020 Olympics,” Sushil added here on the day.
Squash players too are confident about the sport’s inclusion in the Olympic fold and believe they will be third-time lucky after two failed attempts by the World Squash Federation.
“Our sport has evolved so much over the years and we truly are an Olympic sport. We are fighting with wrestling and baseball to get in and I feel we definitely are a step ahead of them as a sport to get into the Olympics,” said top player Dipika Pallikal.
Meanwhile, Nenad Lalovic, the head of the wrestling world governing body, said he was still circumspect about the vote and genuinely feared the consequences for both the sport and the fall-out in some countries should they fail.
“What I am hearing makes me optimistic but a vote is another matter. We will be much more disappointed than them (squash and softball/baseball) if we go out,” Lalovic said.