Stupid, Stupid, Stupid!

One of my favorite scenes in the Hitchcock classic "Vertigo" features Jimmy Stewart's on-screen girlfriend unveiling a comical self-portrait. He hates it -- does not think it's funny -- and walks out on her. And as she sits alone contemplating his reaction, the woman grafittis her own painting, screaming, "Stupid! Stupid ... Stupid!" 

To the International Olympic Committee, who today voted to exclude Olympic wrestling (both freestyle and Greco-Roman) from the 2020 summer Olympics, my thoughts echo those of Olympic historian David Wallechinsky quoted in The New York Times. STUPID!

FUCKING STUPID!

I think the IOC will regret this decision for many years. Today's vote is like painting grafitti on their own image.

According to Around The Rings, the aforementioned NYTimes.com story, and other sports news sites, the IOC is defending its choice as a vote for other sports (rather than a vote against wrestling). The IOC says it wants to be "hip" and "with-it" (insert Dr. Evil voice here) and go with sports that appeal to a younger audience.

HELLO! Wresting is an ancient sport with millions of fans worldwide! It's also a sport in which a diverse array of nations qualified and medalled! It's been on the Olympic competition schedule for every modern Olympiad and ancient Olympiad. Olympic wrestling exemplifies the "stronger" portion of the Olympic Motto.

It's as though the IOC pulled a wrestling move -- the "insert head into anus" technique -- to exclude wrestling for 2020.

Fortunately, the voting members do have the option to dislodge craniums from sphincters at a May 2013 meeting, during which their vote may be overturned. I hope FILA, USA Wrestling and other wrestling NOCs may rally and get this mistake vote quickly erased from IOC history. 

I don't mean to be luddite about the IOC's decision -- innovation is good. But nixing wrestling from the Olympic program is not innovative. It's ridiculous.

I want them to be lutte-ite.

Here's one way those who agree may help -- check out the Keep Wrestling In The Olympics page on Facebook, and send your thoughts to the IOC. What bone-head move will they think of next?

UPDATE ON SEPTEMBER 8, 2013: Thank heavens, the IOC corrected its mistake and reinstated Olympic Wrestling through a vote held in Buenos Aires. Whew! Congratulations to FILA, USA Wrestling and all the wrestling fans for their hard work to pin this inclusion of the ancient Olympic sport in future Olympiads. USA Today published a good summary of these developments for wrestling, softball/baseball and squash.

Photo via Associated Press at this link

International Society of Olympic Historians Presents Awards in Vancouver

Today in Vancouver's historic Gastown neighborhood, in a cozy coffee shop/basement restaurant named the Salt Tasting Room, the International Society of Olympic Historians (ISOH) presented three awards for lifetime accomplishment in the preservation of Olympic history.

The 2009 ISOH Award was presented to author/historian Robert K. Barney, while two 2009 Vikelas Plaque (named for the first IOC president) awards were presented to Olympic Order recipient/Emmy Award winning filmmaker Bud Greenspan and former USOC press chief (and so much more) C. Robert Paul, Jr.

This was the second time I've seen Mr. Greenspan in person, and though he is much older (now 83, unfortunately unable to speak) than our first conversation -- in Atlanta in 1997 at the premiere of his Centennial Games film -- he was in good spirits and visibly appreciative of the honor. The film company he founded in the 1960s, Cappy Productions, apparently provided some consulting to VANOC for capturing footage of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.

His more senior fellow honoree, Mr. Paul, shared some amazing stories, as did ISOH officer and Olympic author/NBC contributor David Wallechinsky, who introduced the pair of honorees by explaining that Mr. Paul helped a young and then-Olympic-first-timer Greenspan to secure his last-minute media credentials at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City.

As a public relations practitioner, I was fascinated by Mr. Paul's additional stories from the front lines of old-school media relations on behalf of Team USA. He shared that at the Innsbruck 1976 Winter Olympics there was an "incident" (P.R.-speak for S.N.A.F.U.) when the last-place ice hockey team trashed a restaurant and they had to sneak the players out of town to avoid an international incident (over lunch we briefly talked about how their sneak-away tactics might now be foiled by instantaneous social media posts).

Also of note was how Mr. Paul invented the tradition of a U.S. Presidential phone call to gold medal winning athletes.

As the story was told, Mr. Paul planted that idea with a New York Times sports writer (Paul knew the White House press chief read The Times religiously) by convincing the reporter to include a closing paragraph about the lack of presidential attention to top Olympic performances (wouldn't you know it, the next day President Ford telephoned the day's U.S. gold medalist!).

Wallechinsky also noted that Mr. Paul was the USOC archivist when the younger historian began work on his first Olympic book, and the pair concurred that "the camaraderie is not the same as it was back then" (early 1980s) at the Team USA home office in Colorado Springs.

The biggest surprise of the event: Spotting IOC Member to Canada Dick Pound, who arrived just in time for lunch! (HELLO!!!) Pound took time to answer a couple of questions for this Olympic blog. THANK YOU, Mr. Pound! (and thank you, ISOH, for hosting a great event!)