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SPORTS.

 

Hold on!

Wrestling deemed
adaitional’ sport for
2020 Tokyo Olympics

 

By Courtnie Martin,
Sports Reporter

he 2020 Tokyo Olympics

will officially welcome
back wrestling, after the sport
was cut by the International
Olympic Committee (IOC)
following a reported lack
of interest at the previous
Olympics. Following this
2013 announcement, the then-
president of the International
Federation of Associated
Wrestling Styles (FILA)
Raphaél Martinetti resigned,
having almost lost a confidence
vote from the board. Nenad
Lalovic was appointed the
interim president, and was later
officially elected to the position.

Now, the IOC has voted
for wrestling to return to the
Olympics—a decision that
secured a spot for wrestling
and lost spots for both baseball-
softball and squash in their
respective bids for the 2020 and
2024 Games.

“Wrestling has shown great
passion and resilience in the
last few months,” explained
IOC President Jacques Rogge.
“They have taken a number
of steps to modernize and
improve their sport.”

In an interview, Lalovic
said, “We are aware of our
mistakes and they will not
happen again.” He continued,
stating “This crisis gave us
the strength to change and
we finally found out that we
can change. This was the most
valuable experience of all of
this journey.”

Many people may be
wondering how archery,
canoeing, and sailing are
Olympic sports but wrestling
got the axe. Surely only the IOC
can answer this question.

As for a rumoured

In the end, though, this
controversy raised some
concerns and opened the door
to change in the wrestling
world. FILA have adjusted the
weight classes so that women
can contend, adding two
women’s weight classes. They
have also made changes to the
rules so that the sport is clearer
and more entertaining to the
audience, and the wrestlers are
more tactical and aggressive.

It was very clear the IOC
was eager to fix their original
decision. Wrestling beat out
baseball-softball by a whopping

FILA have adjusted the weight classes so that women
can contend, adding two womens weight classes. They
have also made changes to the rules so that the sport
Is clearer and more entertaining to the audience and the
wrestlers are more tactical and aggressive.”

reason for the decision to cut
wrestling in the first place, it
was suggested that wrestling
was not fun to watch and

the rules were unclear. It

also apparently too closely
resembled the World Wrestling
Entertainment (WWE)—fake
street-fighters wrestling, rather
than competitive sports—and
seemed to be a tad sexist.
After all, how many women
wrestlers do you know of,

and how many of them aren’t
dressed in bra and panties?

49 to 24 vote in the first round.
Although baseball-softball fans
are crushed by the news, the
IOC and wrestling world could
not be happier; wrestling has
been an Olympic sport original
since the early 1900s. Wrestling
was added back in as an
“additional” sport,, as opposed
to one of the 25 “core” sports—
but at least it was guaranteed a
spot in both the 2020 and 2024
Olympics. As for the worlds of
baseball-softball and squash,

better luck next time!

 

Sayed Aodelmonem competes against Zaur Kuramagomedoy
of Russia in the 2012 London Olympics
Phato courtesy of www.zimbio.com

 

Leading the way

Mia Rushton tackles
another season
with the Royals

 

By Eric Wilkins, Sports Editor

“She’s bled, broken, and
sweated everything she could
for this team, and just keeps
coming out. And she wants
the best [for the team] too.
Couldn’t say anything more
positive about her.”

Coach Ciaran McMahon
speaks glowingly about Mia
Rushton, and rightly so. The
fifth-year holding mid is set
to serve her fourth year as
captain, and the responsibility
is a challenge she’s never
thought about backing down

from.

“T was put in this position
as a captain in my second year,
so I said I need to be better. Be
a leader. Be more confident.”

The no-nonsense
Coquitlam Metro-Ford (CMF)
product was born to play the
game. While not quite Mozart,
Rushton started knocking the
ball around at the age of four,
before getting into organized
soccer the next year. And she’s
never looked back.

Listening to her talk about
her young career, it becomes
obvious that she’s someone
who’s hard to bring down
when she mentions that her
favourite and least favourite
moments occurred almost
simultaneously—losing in
the provincial final of her
Grade 12 year with CMF to

Abbotsford... after double-
overtime... in sudden death
penalty kicks after the initial
five had gone. “It was the
worst moment. We were so
close! But coming from where
we had started in the season
and improving to where we
finished made it a highlight
even though it was a bit of a
lowlight.”

Though the thought may
be absurd now, the Terry Fox
Secondary grad nearly didn’t
give post-secondary soccer a
chance. “I’d almost written off
college [soccer] in my Grade
12 year. Not that I didn’t
enjoy that year, but I wanted
a break... [had played youth
soccer for so long that... it
wasn’t as though I’d lost my
love for the game, but I’d lost
a bit of that passion that drives

you to want to continue your
career.” Rushton was also
discovering her hard-nosed
style translated well into
sports other than the beautiful
game, trying her hand at rugby
and wrestling; she would go
on to provincial appearances
in both. But soccer wasn’t
done with her just yet. The
then Royals coaching trio of
Randy Taylor, Scott Philp, and
Wayne Trafton came out to

six or seven of her games that
year in an effort to bring her to
Douglas. The attention came
as a surprise to her. “I’ve never
been a flashy player or had a
lot of skills... I do my job.” She
would go on to train with the
team that summer, feature in

a majority of the games that
year, and the rest is history.
Rushton laughs as she adds,

“It sounds so corny, but that
fire lit again.”

The Royals’ No. 3
currently has hopes of
graduating from Douglas
College’s Bachelor of Physical
Education and Coaching
program. True to her track
record, Rushton plans to
continue being a leader on and
off the pitch, citing her desire
to be a coach and/or teacher in
the community—P.E., biology,
and geography being her
subjects of choice. She can’t
help beaming though when
asked about the possibility of
one day coaching at Douglas.
“I'd love to,” she says, smiling
broadly and then adding with
a chuckle, “We'll have to see
if McMahon’s still hanging
around.”

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