WRESTLING DROPPED FROM 2020 OLYMPICS February 13, 2013 International Olympic Committee (IOC) leaders have dropped wrestling from the 2020 Games in a surprise decision, leading to scrapping one of the oldest sports on the Olympic program. The IOC executive board decided on Tuesday to retain modern pentathlon – the event considered most at risk and remove wrestling instead from its list of core sports. The IOC board acted after reviewing the 26 sports on the current Olympic program. Eliminating one sport allows the IOC to add a new sport to the program later this year. Wrestling, which combines freestyle and Greco-Roman events, goes back to the inaugural modern Olympics in Athens in 1896. The sport featured 344 athletes competing in 11 medal events in freestyle and seven in Greco-Roman at last year’s London Olympics. Wrestling will now be listed with 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.