#SaveOlympicWrestling fails to get my support

OK, OK. This blog is meant to be sticking up for smaller sports. I’m usually quite thIn particular, those of us who believe the modern Games should be returned permanently to their original homeland (and stripped thereby of some of the grosser excrescences of contemporary commercialisation) would want to keep wrestling firmly at their core.e traditionalist.

But I seem to be just about the only person who hasn’t reacted with sheer outrage to wrestling losing its place among the Olympic core sports in times for the XXXII Olympiad in 2020. Everyone from John McCain to this guy (quote below) has been attacking the decision:

“In particular, those of us who believe the modern Games should be returned permanently to their original homeland (and stripped thereby of some of the grosser excrescences of contemporary commercialisation) would want to keep wrestling firmly at their core.”

Really bad decision by the #IOC to drop wrestling – one of the oldest sports, around since the ancient Greeks. #Olympics

— John McCain (@SenJohnMcCain) February 13, 2013

I understand wrestling’s traditional roots, its links with the Olympics of ancient Greece. Unfortunately, I just find it really boring. This could be because Great Britain is just a bit rubbish at wrestling – both freestyle and Greco-Roman – but then again, I enjoyed the archery. Scratch that – I loved the archery.

Maybe I’m being selfish in not caring wrestling will have to fight it out with baseball/softball, squash, karate, climbing, wakeboarding, wushu and roller sports to be a part of the 2020 Olympics. Just because I’m not a fan, shouldn’t I fight the good fight on behalf of wrestlers?

Well, no. I admit it would probably be a travesty if baseball/softball, climbing, wakeboarding or roller sports took its place at the Games. I’ve never heard of wushu, but a quick Wikipedia search tells me its nuances are too complex for me to give a proper judgement as to its Olympic merits.

I have heard of karate, obviously, and I’m yet to be told why it isn’t in the Olympics but taekwondo and judo are. And they were fun, unlike the wrestling!

No, if I was an IOC delegate in September casting a vote as to which sport to take to the Games in seven years’ time, I’d vote – I assume it’s as straightforward as that – for squash. Good sport, a darn side more international than wushu and, I daresay, wrestling.

And if, as reports suggest, it was one of wrestling, taekwondo or modern pentathlon which would be ditched, the choice, for me, turns into a total no-brainer.

London 2012 Olympics: Top five moments – Karina Bryant

With a silver and a bronze, judo was a surprise success at the Games for Great Britain.

For most people, the abiding memory of the British judokas’ performances will – rightly – be Gemma Gibbons whispering emotionally to the heavens “I love you, mum” following her semi-final triumph over France’s Audrey Tcheuméo.

But for some reason I was equally touched by Karina Bryant’s bronze medal in the +78kg division the very next day. She, too, had a difficult road to London 2012, suffering a neck injury last year and even being forced to raise money herself simply to be able to drive to training.

And her emotion after she sealed a win over Iryna Kindzerska of Ukraine was obvious. She described the bronze as like a gold to her – in many ways earning silver in a knockout competition like judo is more of a disappointment than bronze, because to do so you will have lost your final match.

But Bryant won hers, in front of a family she barely sees and a rapturous crowd at the ExCeL. It was a second successive day of raw emotion for Great Britain on the mat.

London 2012: Jade Jones and Aled Davies among the Welsh stars to be honoured

London 2012 gold medallists Jade Jones and Mark Colbourne will be among more than 40 Welsh stars parading on the steps of the Senedd this weekend.

The Welsh government is also encouraging Games Makers who took part in either the Olympic or Paralympic Games to wear their uniforms to the event on Friday evening.

Jones, from Flint, won Great Britain’s first ever Olympic gold in taekwondo, while Paralympic cyclist Colbourne, from Tredegar, picked up three medals, including gold in the C1 individual pursuit.

Other medallists who will be met by First Minister Carwyn Jones and Presiding Officer Rosemary Butler include Tom James (rowing, gold), Fred Evans (boxing, silver) and Aled Davies, who set off on a memorable lap of honour after winning gold in the F42 discus.

Josie Pearson, who broke the world record three times to win the F51/52/53 discus – Great Britain’s 10th and final Paralympic athletics gold – is also set to attend.

The evening is set to begin at 4.30pm with performers from Wales’s cultural Olympiad, including 19-year-old clarinet player Lloyd Coleman, Abergavenny Borough Brass Band and Ebbw Vale Male Choir, entertaining the crowds.

The public will be able to show their appreciation to the athletes from about 6pm.

You can follow the events on Twitter by following @WelshGovernment or watching the hashtag #2012cymruwales.

EDIT: Original mistakenly said it was being held on Saturday evening.

Those post-Olympic blues

“Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened”

-Dr Seuss (allegedly)

The Olympic Park has fallen quiet – at least until the Paralympics

It might seem a little strange that this blog, which, since its inception, has been eagerly anticipating the Games of the XXX Olympiad for its positive impact on sports like handball and judo, should have fallen silent for the last six weeks.

Handball at the Copper Box: This blog did a feature on handball last year, and it was one of the surprising successes of the Games

Fortunately, I have had the privilege to have been able to work at the Telegraph since the beginning of July, helping their (unrivalled!) coverage of the Olympics. This, along with a broken laptop and having stayed in a hostel for most of that time, has also meant I have been unable to update this blog.

The Olympics, a complete triumph in sporting and non-sporting terms for the UK, have also been a great success for Wales, with seven medals won by Welsh members of Team GB, the most ever. Jade Jones, the taekwondo gold medallist, became only the third Welsh female Olympic champion ever.

I have been looking forward to these Olympics since July 2005, and it is almost unbearable to think they have already gone.

I will be reflecting on the Olympic Games and my experience of them in due course, but I am still in London for the next two weeks at least, so a more considered reaction will have to wait, perhaps until after the Paralympics. They begin at the end of August, and the prospect that Great Britain will get behind them and make them the first sold-out Games in history is an exciting one.

Double success for Welsh judoka Mark Pickering

A Welsh judoka is celebrating a double success after taking gold at the inaugural Barlestone Club Championships just 24 hours after passing his 4th kyu grading.

Picture courtesy of Mark Pickering

Mark Pickering, 26, from Pencoed, Bridgend, is the media officer at the British Judo Association – the national governing body for the Olympic and Paralympic sport in Great Britain – and has embraced the sport since taking up the role in 2010.

Disappointment for Great Britain in Judo World Cups

British athletes could not build on their Commonwealth success from last weekend as they left the judo World Cups in Bulgaria and Georgia empty-handed.

The Welsh competitors fell short of their targeted success, with British champion Brandon Dodge, from the Gower, eliminated at the first hurdle by Russian Sergey Krtyan in the men’s under-60kg at the Tbilisi tournament.

Commonwealth under-78kg champion Natalie Powell, who picked up gold in her division at last week’s competition at the Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff Bay, overcame Greece’s Vasiliki Lymperopoulou before being knocked out by Canadian Marylise Levesque – who narrowly missed out on a medal herself – in the women’s tournament in Sofia.

It will now take an impressive performance in the forthcoming World Cups in Hungary and Poland for Natalie, of Builth Wells in Powys, to earn qualification for the 2012 Olympic Games.

It was a disappointing weekend for all British athletes, with none making the final eight in any of the seven weight divisions in either the men’s or women’s tournament.

Hosts Georgia dominated the men’s event, picking up six golds, with Germany’s Dimitri Peters the other champion. Meanwhile, there was a more even split among the female champions in Bulgaria. Germany took home two golds, with China, France, Russia, South Korea and Tunisia picking up one each.