Local athletes react to Olympics' decision to drop wrestling in 2020

CINCINNATI - Many aspiring wrestlers had their dreams crushed Tuesday after the Olympics announced the sport would soon be eliminated from the competition.

Wrestlers at the Summit Country Day athletic complex shared their frustration with 9 On Your Side concerning the decision.

"That's kind of like thinking of LeBron James and the NBA. You think about the Olympics you think about wrestling," said senior Ben Wilson, who has been wrestling since his freshman year.

Wilson and his team recently finished in second place at the Miami Valley conference last weekend.

He heard about the International Olympic Committee's decision to drop the sport from the 2020 games before he got to practice.

"Other than the WWE, which is not really real wrestling, it's pretty much the Olympics and now that's gone, don't have much other than college," said Wilson.

Wrestling was given the boot after it was a toss-up between modern pentathlon, Taekwondo and field hockey.

"It's one of the oldest sports in the Olympics, starting with the Greeks and Romans and taking that away is just not right," said freshman Davionne Laney.

It's been his dream to someday compete in the Olympics, but Laney says he's not going to let the IOC's decision discourage him from his goal.

However, assistant wrestling coach Craig Moore is more concerned about the younger kids.

"i think children need people to look up to people with strong moral ethics and wrestling has all that and that's what wrestling exemplifies, if take it away it will be negative across the board," said Moore.

However, Moore said he won't let this bring down his team.

"I hope there is enough outcry for sport itself from here in the U.S. and international level to bring it back again," he said.

Eliminating wrestling allows the IOC to add a new sport. The decision on what that will be will come in September.