Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
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SALT LAKE CITY — The International Olympic Committee has decided that wrestling will not be part of the 2020 Summer Games. This will end the run of one of the few events that have been around since the first modern Games in 1896 and can be traced to the original Olympics.
Wrestling is one of nine sports that has been around since 1896. It missed one Olympics, the 1900 Games, but has been a part of the Olympics ever since and is a staple of the events.
The 1896 Games featured wrestling with no weight class and Olympians that competed in other events also competed as weight-lifters. Launceston Elliot, was defeated by a gymnast, Carl Schuhmann, in the semi-finals. Ultimately Schumann won the gold.
The IOC was reviewing every "core sport" to decide whether to keep them. Exactly how they decided to abandon wrestling isn't clear, but they seem to like the other sports more. Wrestling still might make it, there is a Twitter petition going on by lots of people including Cael Sanderson, a 2004 gold medalist and local wrestling legend.
Flood IOC Executive Members with POSITIVE letters on why wrestling should be a part of Olympics.Names & address here: — Cael Sanderson (@caelsanderson) February 12, 2013
Wrestling will have to battle it out with sports like baseball, softball, roller sports, wake boarding and squash. Although everyone can take heart in knowing that trampolining is safe.
Greatest shot ever?
Well Anna Olson enjoy this moment, not because it is your pinnacle, there will be better times, but because people will be trying this for years to come.
Olson is a girl who plays for Lewis Palmer high school. The clock was running out at the end of the third quarter and she figured she had time for one last heave. So she took her shot from the other basket and it came up pretty short.
However, she was able to get the ball to bounce inside the key up to the rim and it rolled over the top to drop in.
The other team appeared to have time going the other way, but Olson's coach said that the clock stopped because they didn't know what was going on. Even if this was taken as the first shot in the game it was still awesome. Good for you Anna, enjoy it.
Bibby booted from son's game:
From a good high school experience to this. Mike Bibby hasn't exactly fallen on hard times, but at least once he definitely didn't have things going his way.
Bibby was a superstar at Arizona where he won the National Championship his freshman year and was the second pick in the NBA draft the year after. He played originally for the Vancouver Grizzles, but spent 14 years in the NBA and was a key piece for the Sacramento Kings during their glory years with him and Chris Webber running the show.
This story though is about his son, or his son's basketball game. While watching Mike Bibby Jr. play things got testy as the senior Bibby felt he knew more than the referees. They started arguing and Bibby eventually got tossed with the help of some police officers.
Oh and it was caught on film, it is just him leaving, but here it is regardless.
This just goes to show that anyone can argue with refs, but at the same time anyone can get tossed from their kid's game for doing so.
Trade Deadline Shenanigans:
The Utah Jazz are known to keep a tight lid on their trade rumors, which at this time can be both welcoming and frustrating for fans and journalists. However, it could be better than what Nuggets coach George Karl admitted to once doing as a joke.
Jodie Valade of Cleveland's "The Plain Dealer" wrote about Karl talking with Cavs general manager about trades in jest, then Karl talked about making up trades just to get the media going. This is taken from her article.
"Karl said he tries to avoid media in the days before the trade deadline because 'we tell fibs and lies.' However, he has helped to fan the flame. He admitted he once had a contest with coaching pals to see who could get an outlandish rumor into the newspaper first.
"'We make up some trade that never was proposed in 100 years and suddenly it's on ESPN,' he said, smiling.
"Karl said he's no longer in the business of pulling pranks, and had no trades in the works that he wanted to share. He swears he hasn't spread any trade rumors in '7-8 years,' he said."
Well, Jazz fans, picking between having no idea and simply being made a joke seems like a fun endeavor. But, knowing the Jazz front office, everyone will just have to wait it out in silence.
