FILA President Nenad Lalovic said that wrestling expects to make an IOC shortlist of candidate sports for the 2020 Olympics as it "battles to restore its Olympic presence," according to Karolos Grohmann of REUTERS. Lalovic: "We of course expect to be in the shortlist. We don't have guarantees but we will go to compete like on the mat and the best will win." Wrestling would "join seven other candidate sports that will battle it out for the one vacant spot." The eight contenders "will be reduced" on Wednesday when the IOC announces a shortlist after brief presentations from the candidate sports. The IOC "has not said how many will be short-listed." Squash, karate, wakeboarding, rollersports, baseball and softball, wushu and sports climbing "are the other candidates hoping to make the shortlist for the September vote." Wrestling also "received a thumbs-up" from Istanbul 2020 Olympics bid CEO Hasan Arat, who said that wrestling, a national sport in his country, "would be good to have if Istanbul were awarded the Olympics." Arat: "It is important for Turkey" (REUTERS, 5/28).
OPTIMISM ABOUNDS: The AP reported Lalovic said, "I'm confident. A lot of people say to me, 'Oh, you won't face any problem here.' But we'll see. We did everything we could. Nothing else was possible." Lalovic, who replaced Switzerland's Raphael Martinetti as FILA president, "isn't concerned about the plight of the other sports." Lalovic said, "They had two years to prepare. We had three months. We are here because we were not good enough. They have to think about their sport. We don't think about their sport" (AP, 5/28). The PTI reported Indian grapplers "are hopeful of the sport being shortlisted." Wrestling Federation of India General Secretary Raj Singh said, "We are very optimistic about the meeting. We have made necessary changes to make our sport more viewer-friendly. That’s what the IOC wanted us to do" (PTI, 5/28).
