Wrestling legend Dan Gable isn’t taking this one lying on
his back. He’s ready to fight. “The thing is, because of wrestling, I have a
mindset that is strong. Exceptionally strong,” Gable told Press-citizen.com. “I
don’t believe in the four-letter word ‘quit.’ I don’t believe in the
four-letter word ‘can’t.’”
He does believe in a few other four-letter words. Some of
which he used to refer to the IOC leader, Haalph Nelson. Ok. No, Haalph Nelson isn’t even half
accurate, but wouldn’t it be cool if it was? Still, I’m sure that Dan did use
more than half a dozen four-letter words to describe the IOC before talking to
the press.
As Gable should: wrestling has been berry, berry, good to
him. Unfortunately, it hasn’t been so good to network television. Last
Olympics, wrestling was relegated to afternoon viewing at best. For network
television, wrestling is as sales salient as shot put. The real dollars are in
basketball, gymnastics and track sans field.
Oh and wakeboarding.
Yah, wakeboarding. That’s one of the sports vying to take
the place of wrestling. Others include rock climbing and squash. Oh, we’re in
for a televised treat come 2020! It’s kinda like bringing Keith Urban to
American Idol.
Sorry Keith, but you’re no Dan Gable. Neither is some
wakeboarder whose name I don’t know. Then again, I’m biased. I wrestled in school. I’ll miss it when
it’s gone from the Olympics.
As Dan Gable pointed out, “It’s not like you have a sport
like baseball, that has a pro baseball league that’s outstanding — so kids can
dream of going places beyond the educational system. So that kind of eliminates
the high end for us.”
Maybe they should settle this the same way we settle
conflicts in high school wrestling: on the mat.
Dan Gable takes on the IOC in a no-holds-barred cage match
of the millennium. I say since
there’s no pro/amateur Olympic distinction anymore, let’s bring in a few pro
wrestlers to help him out. I’m
sure Hulk Hogan and the Rock have something to say about Olympic wrestling,
even if they never wrestled freestyle a day in their lives. Oddly enough, Mr. T
did wrestle; so let’s bring him in too.
“What’s your prediction for the fight, Clubber?”
“Pain.”
Let’s show them what a show wrestling can be. Wrestling is
the oldest competitive sport, dating back as far as 3000 BC, according to USA
Today. And they should know: they’ve been reporting news that long. Back then
it was just a single sheet, carved out on rock. Ancient wrestlers used to use
USA Today to knock competitors out of the ring, before the invention of the folding
chair.
Now the sport has lost its zing. Two guys hugging in tights doesn’t
have the same draw as the mixed martial arts.
Can we afford to throw it out, though? Wrestling is a part
of the Olympic heritage. If we throw wrestling out, we throw out the foundation
for why we compete: legacy.
In life, we struggle and compete for a sense of lasting meaning.
That life will remember what we do for longer than a Facebook post. I was never
a great wrestler, but when I did wrestle it taught me about myself.
It taught me that I was a better blogger than a wrestler.
And I owe that disappointment to Dan Gable and the sport of
wrestling.
But in our “everybody wins” society, I’d hate to see the
opportunity to lose taken away from deserving others.
Dan knows what’s at stake. He’s a wrestler. There are four
letter words he doesn’t know, because wrestling knocked them out of his head.
But what wrestling did teach him is that even when you’re beat, you get back
out there and try again. That’s what wrestling is about.
That’s what life is about.
That’s what the Olympics are supposed to be about.
And that’s why I blog.
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