Dan Henderson and Ronda Rousey Comment on Wrestling Being Removed From Olympics
Posted by Jeremy Thomas on 02.12.2013
They're not happy with it...
Dan Henderson, Ronda Rousey and Yahoo! sports writer Maggie Hendricks spoke today with MMAjunkie about the IOC's decision to cut wrestling from the Olympics. Check out the highlights:
Henderson on the removal: "It's kind of sad. But I've been hearing that being threatened as a possibility for at least 20 years, so hopefully it doesn't stay that way."
Rousey on the removal: "I think it's just a shame. This is the oldest sport in all of the Olympics. In the original Olympics, they had wrestling."
Rousey on the sport being cut while golf has been reinstated: "The idea that they're replacing it with golf – I just think if you don't break a sweat, it's not a sport. It's a skill."
Rousey on why the IOC came to the decision: "The only real reason I could think of is maybe just a few countries are overly dominant. They start taking sports out if there aren't enough countries competing or if one country is winning too much."
Hendricks on the decision: "It's mind-blowing. The reason why I'm so shocked is because there's no reason behind it. I'm sure it's some sort of political thing."
Hendricks on the sport's promotion of gender equality: "The thing that's been great about wrestling is that it's been growing both at the men's and women's level. Women in countries where they have to work really hard to get respect and get noticed as athletes have been able to do that through wrestling. That's being taken away from them."
