Legendary wrestler Gene Mills disappointed by decision
Wrestler Gene Mills talks with CNY Central's Alex Dunbar
(AP) -- IOC leaders dropped wrestling from the Olympic program on Tuesday, a surprise decision that removes one of the oldest Olympic sports from the 2020 Games.
The IOC executive board decided to retain modern pentathlon - the event considered most at risk - and remove wrestling instead from its list of 25 "core sports."
"My first thought is - they can't do that. That's the oldest sport known to man. It was the originator of the Olympics. That's one of the reasons they started it. Because of wrestling," said legendary wrestler Gene Mills on Tuesday.
Mills knows all too well the disappointment young wrestlers are feeling today. In 1980, he was considered the best wrestler in the world. Mills wrestled at Syracuse University and was voted "Athlete of the Year" by the Olympic Committee -- but never got a chance to win gold. President Carter ordered the U.S. team boycott the 1980 Moscow Olympics.
At the 1980 World Championships in Japan, Mills pinned the Bronze, Silver and Gold medal winners from the Moscow games.
32 years later, Mills is now a teacher and coach at Phoenix high school in Oswego county. He hopes up and coming young wrestlers don't have to deal with the disappointment he faced.
.
"Definitely going to crush a lot of a lot of people's dreams. I know what it did to me. I was upset, angry and bitter for many many years," said Mills.
Adding insult to injury for Mills is that more obscure sports like curling and the pentathlon are still in the Olympics while wrestling is being cut.
"There are some sports...are you kidding me? It's different. They're more like games."
Wrestling does have a chance to be voted back into the Olympics but it has to compete against seven other sports in applying for inclusion in 2020. The others are a combined bid from baseball and softball, karate, squash, roller sports, sport climbing, wakeboarding and wushu. They will be vying for a single opening in 2020.
The IOC executive board will meet in May in St. Petersburg, Russia, to decide which sport or sports to propose for 2020 inclusion. The final vote will be made at the IOC session, or general assembly, in September in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
(Copyright ©2013 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
