Wrestling, as expected, regained its place on the Olympic Games sports roster after a vote by International Olympic Committee members in Buenos Aires on Sunday.
Wrestling, which is one of the rare sports to have transcended the ancient and modern Olympics, won in the first round of voting with 49 of the 95 votes cast.
The joint bid of baseball/softball was second with 24 votes and squash received 22.
The result sees wrestling assured of appearing at both the 2020 — which is to be hosted by Tokyo — and the 2024 Olympics.
It marks a remarkable turnaround in fortunes for wrestling which was dropped from the Olympic programme in February this year by the 15-person IOC Executive Board but which provoked an unprecedented backlash.
The same board then gave it a second chance when they put it on the three-sport shortlist — after presentations by eight sports at the end of May — to be considered by the entire IOC membership in Buenos Aires.
Nenad Lalovic, who has led the sweeping reforms and campaign since he was installed as president after his predecessor was forced out because of the humiliation of being dropped, had told the members in Sunday’s presentation how important the decision would be for the sport. “It would be an understatement to say that today is the most important day in the 3,000 years of our existence,” said the Serbian.
“We have made mistakes and we have learnt from them.”
Lalovic and his team gave a great roar when they heard the result, and said that it would be a decision the IOC would not regret.
For baseball/softball — who had among others Antonio Castro the son of the long-time Cuban leader Fidel in their presentation team — it represents another blow after being voted off the Games programme starting with the 2012 London edition.
For squash too there will be huge disappointment that a journey that started 10 years ago — seeing them top the vote in 2005 but fail to get the required two-thirds majority and then fail in 2009 — still has some distance to go before they perhaps achieve their ultimate goal.