YA, because golf says Olympic athelete way more than the original Greeco-Roman Wrestling......SHEESH

is it because because there are not women ?

It's hard to believe they would eliminate wrestling while table tennis, shooting, golf, archery, badminton, handball, fencing, as well as the mother of all silly activities, rhythmic gymnastics, are still on the list. Not to mention equestrian in which the horse does 99% of the work. Eliminate one of the original Olympic events so esoteric sports teams can lobby now for the spot on the 2020 list e.g.; Roller sports? Squash? Wakeboarding? Sport climbing? While some of these may be physically challenging, they seem more like activities rather than competitive sports, much like beach volleyball.

@wisiag Women do compete in the wrestling free-style event.

Eliminate wrestling but keep beach volleyball??? Please. . .

Actually, wrestling was one of five events in the ancient Olympics. To be awarded laurels, an athlete would have to win three of the five events--running, jump, discus, javelin. If this was done without wrestling (which was the fifth event), then the triumph was said to have been without sand. (Wrestling was done in a sand pit.) It is sad that the IOC is rejecting a premier event from the ancient games.

Wake boarding? LOL As if I needed another reason to ignore the olympics.

You have to keep wrestling. Get rid of synchronized diving which is just silly.

It's absolute foolishness to eliminate wrestling. I wrestled growing up and enjoy watching it during the olympics. It's one of the original sports and more pure and simple to understand than many of the made-up and convoluted sports we have today. I can, however, see WHY it would be done. Unlike a lot of sports, there really isn't any recreational wrestling (nobody does it for fun--unlike golf, running, beach volleyball, etc.), so casual interest is pretty low and sponsors aren't going to sell any gear to the casual participants (again, unlike golf, which is a multi-billion dollar industry, or beach volleyball which clothing and sunglasses companies support). I'm sure, that most things, it comes down to simple economics, though. If people were buying the tickets and sponsors were lining up to run adds at the wrestling venues and during the TV coverage, it wouldn't be considered for elimination. It's unfortunate, but the Olympics have become more about running a profitable business than promoting pure athletic competition.

I have to admit, I don't really like wrestling. However, the IOC has no reason to drop one of the original sports. One cannot just take away a tradition.