The IOC - Wrestling with the appeal of Wrestling

The IOC & FILA - Wrestling with the appeal of Wrestling & The 10 Rules of Re-launch

The International Olympic Committee left wrestling out of the 2020 Olympic Games event programme following a meeting of the organisation’s executive board earlier this year in February in which all 26 sports were reviewed. Due to a cost cutting exercise to reduce the number of events and numbers of athletes competing at Summer Games the number of core sports were reduced to 25 and wrestling, a sport that has been in the Olympic Games since 708 BC...was dropped.

Apart from cost cutting reasons, the main reason wrestling was dropped has to be popularity. The IOC assessed each sport by looking at such factors as TV ratings, ticket sales, anti-doping and global popularity coupled with 39 other criteria including youth appeal, universality, popularity, good governance, respect for athletes and respect for the Olympic values. I believe wrestling was failing several of these criteria.

The International Federation of Associated Wrestling Styles (FILA) were shocked at the decision, stated a vote of no confidence in its President, Mr. Raphaël Martinetti, and subsequently appointed Nenad Lalovic to overhaul the sport.

What happened next was a cracking relaunch effort, published publicly and swiftly - 2 major plus points already; and he kicked off with lessons 1 & 2 - "be open, act swiftly". Also for the first time ever he invited the media to cover the conference.

Lesson 3 was empowerment - During his acceptance speech, Lalovic gave all of those at the FILA Congress a small gift. He said that the person in that envelope would be responsible for putting the changes in wrestling into effect. The gift was a small mirror.

He delivered the message with passion and commitment to make a difference (4) and, with immediate effect he changed the rules (5) to increase appeal because no-one understood them.

Lessons 6 & 7 were inclusion & equality  - he set in place a constitution to include more women and more current and former athletes to have a say on the future of the sport.

He also placed a very clear emphasis on the consumer (8) with marketing, sponsorship, PR and broadcast - especially the latter in terms of televising the sport and broadening its appeal to younger people. There will also be greater focus on the hero's and heroines of the sport to create global ambassadors (9).

Lesson 10 is very simple - he just got on with it. No messing, no fussing, just very clear action.

In summary, he set a very clear direction, defined the objective and sold the vision with a time-bound agenda; he included the key stakeholders and informed everyone they had a part to play. He acted with passion and commitment and set clear leadership standards for others to follow; and he executed with excellence. Bravo!!

Wrestling was competing with seven other sports for one single space, but following a vote in Russia the three remaining sports are now squash, roller sports and baseball/softball.

With Roger Federer supporting squash we will wait and see who wins the final spot but personally I believe the sport will be re-included when the IOC meets in Buenos Aries in September. 

For a sport that has been in Olympic existence since 708 BC I think it would be a crying shame not to include it.