Daniel Igali: Wrestling at the Olympics remains an inspiration

The 125th International Olympic Committee (IOC) session on Sunday in Buenos Aires Argentina, voted to revise their absurd decision seven months ago, to drop wrestling from the Olympic programme with 49 votes.
                    
In the last few months, wrestling had undergone major changes, including new rules and a better sports presentation to attract more spectators and a younger audience. In addition, FILA had recently improved its governance by integrating more athletes and women into decision-making positions and by increasing the numbers of its commissions
                                         
Though FILA President, Nenad Lalovic led the campaign and presentation from start to finish, it was Nigeria Wrestling Federation (NWF) President, Mr. Daniel Igali who won over the IOC for the wrestling community all over the world. Igali, a gold medalist at the Sydney 2000 Olympics and a member of the five man FILA presentation team to the IOC session played a pivotal role in his presentation by spelling out what the decision of the IOC would mean for the 177 affiliate countries.

He told of his journey from one of 20 siblings growing up in Niger Delta to become an Olympic champion and argued that young people would have less interest in wrestling should the sport be excluded from the Olympic Games.
“Many of you who have kids or siblings, the proponents argued, would attest that sometime within the past 24 hours, a wrestling match may have taken place in your home. Wrestling is a relatively cheap sport to fund and or to be engaged in, proponents for the inclusion of wrestling argue that the Olympics will never be the same without wrestling. “Wrestling transformed me and is now transforming itself and I would not have had the same zealous passion for wrestling if it wasn’t for the Olympics

“We don’t have a league in my country Nigeria, so for us, the Olympics is our own professional league.
“ We will build a better sport for young kids because in my home town of Niger Delta, if some one important visits, we would have children wrestle for him. “So the decision today will vindicate the dreams of millions of kids that dream of Olympics like I dreamt.  “At the last Olympics in London, 71 nations presented wrestlers and 29 different nations won medals at the Olympics – a feat not equaled by 90% of Olympic Sports.

“The universality of the sport seems to be the main basis for the proponents, who argued that wrestling deserves to be on the Olympic programme. “Since the decision of the executive board of the IOC to exclude wrestling from the 2020 Olympics, wrestling has undergone a revolutionary makeover.
“New wrestling rules have been introduced that makes wrestling more exciting and compelling to watch., attacking wrestling is rewarded, while passive wrestling is highly discouraged and punished.
“More than ever, the wrestlers on the mats now make decisions on who wins a match.”