Iran, Russia and the USA: Unusual Alliance Saves Olympic Wrestling

Wrestling has made it: It remains an Olympic sport.

That might seem strange to someone who doesn’t want to know anything about the extremely strong athletes, their cauliflower ears or the ways they grip their opponents. On top of that, the decision naturally goes against the International Olympic Committee’s repeatedly expressed desire to move with the times and add popular sports to its program. However, the step is logical and understandable. After all, wrestling is one of the oldest sports and carries with it a great tradition, which is very important to the IOC.

But something unexpected was crucial in keeping wrestling in the Olympic program. It was the fact that the most unusual alliance in recent sports history came together for this sport: Wrestling superpowers the U.S.A., Russia and Iran met in May at New York’s Grand Central Station to advertize their sport by holding matches between them. Iranian flags flew in the U.S.A. — where else does that happen? This past spring even the leaders of the three nations — Barack Obama, Vladimir Putin and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad — officially supported retaining the sport and made the international matches possible. Suddenly wrestling stopped being a sport about fighting against each other and started being a sport about teamwork. This alliance between the U.S., Russia and Iran, which doesn’t exist in politics, particularly impressed the IOC and led its members to rethink their plan.

The decision is making the people of Southern Baden, Germany very happy because, in contrast to northern Germany, wrestling has deep roots in this region, especially in rural communities where there are often wrestling leagues in addition to soccer. When it comes to youth and junior championships, Southern Baden is regularly one of the top state associations, and the team competitions are legendary in many places. That’s precisely why the sigh of relief was so big when the International Olympic Committee decided to retain wrestling in the Olympic program.