Did baseball fans complain when a Major League labor dispute cancelled the 1994 World Series?
WWII didn't lose a World Series, but a labor dispute did.
Did baseball fans complain when the International Olympic Committee dropped baseball and softball, even though MLB players didn't compete?
From the 2005 NY Times: "Needless to say, these sports are very, very disappointed," Jacques Rogge, the IOC president, said after announcing the result. "However, I have to emphasize the fact that they should not fear this purge. The fact is that they shall not be included in the program of the 2012 Olympic Games, but it does not disqualify them forever as Olympic sports."
If Count Jacques Rogge said the same thing to Olympic wrestling fans, he said it quietly.
This is a man who knows how to communicate.
Daily Finance dot com says:"A doctor, a knight, a count and a three-time Olympian in yachting, Belgian Jacques Rogge, 70, is the ideal president of the IOC. The Committee, which can hold up to 115 members, is composed of royals, nobles, CEOs and Olympians."
After dropping Olympic wrestling from the 2020 games, plan on a new wing of leadership at the top, one with fewer royals and nobles and knights.
Who will nominates the new leaders? I had a secret vote similar to the IOC secret vote that quit on wrestling as a core Olympic sport.
My voters understand the evolution of sport and competition rooted in wrestling.
They understand the connection between exercise and brain development that wrestling promotes.
They also understand a world that needs more wrestling and local groups like Restore College Wrestling in Oregon and the Peninsula Wrestling Club.
My secret vote produced a leadership committee for national and international wrestling.
Please encourage these good men to step forward.
• Chief Executive Officer: Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld
From washingtonpost.com: "Let me suggest that when advocates of wrestling make their case for readmission, the committee pay special attention to the case for this proud sport, which once was a favorite of Abraham Lincoln's.
I am not without bias when it comes to the sport. I was a wrestler for 10 years — in high school, at Princeton University and as an officer in the Navy, where I competed for a spot in the 1956 Olympics (unsuccessfully, as it turned out)."
Mr. Rumsfeld is not a royal or a noble, but a warrior who knows how to fight within a bureaucracy, through political opponents, and against the flow.
He's well rested and ready to take it to the IOC.
• Chief Operating Officer: Dave DeWalt.
This ex-wrestler from Delaware became head of McAfee, the global computer security software company. This is a man who knows secrets before they're voted on, who knows where they start and where they finish.
He's an operator in the most noble sense of the word, and perfect for making offers to royals and nobles and CEO's they can't refuse.
• International Emissary of Wrestling: Dan Gable
He competed in Olympic wrestling and won a gold medal without giving up a point.
Baby boomer Dan Gable says, "I shoot, I score. You shoot, I score."
More famously, he said, "After wrestling, everything else is easy."
The man coached the University of Iowa to fifteen NCAA team championships.
With all of his accolades, Mr. Gable may need even more name recognition as he travels the roads of wrestling greatness.
He needs a title that opens doors where wrestling rooms and have grown dark, a title princes and kings can relate to.
Meet The Iowatollah, and get set to rejoin the Olympics.
Domestic wrestling programs, both college and high school, need an extra voice in the room when administrators and athletic directors meet to decide a program's fate.
My secret vote nominated:
• Ambassador of American Wrestling: Ray Lewis
Imagine Ray's Raven dance inside the cloistered halls of the University of Oregon and Portland State. He'd bring is own patch of grass to snatch up to impress the committees. If reasoning failed, and the dance didn't do it, Ray's spirituality would carry the day.
Any school thinking of dropping wrestling with Ray in the room would change their mind if they knew he'd be back.
These four men, Donald Rumsfeld, Dave DeWalt, Dan Gable, and Ray Lewis form a team no one could deny.
Would they help wrestling?
Would they change minds?
No one needs a secret vote for that answer. After they're done, they'll write the history of their efforts.
My secret vote nominates John Irving as Official Historian of Return Wrestling to the Olympics.
He's already got a good start on the job.
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