In an effort to control the size and costs of the Summer Olympics, and make the Games "relevant to sports fans of all generations", the IOC evaluated the Olympic event programme in place for the
2016 Summer Olympics, and voted on 25 "core" sports that would comprise the programme of the
2020 Summer Olympics (which was postponed to 2021 due to the
COVID-19 pandemic). One vacancy was to be left open for a new sport. In February 2013, IOC members voted to remove wrestling from the Olympic programme;
The New York Times cited several potential factors in the decision, including the lack of universally-known talent unlike other sports, and concern for the lack of women's competitions in wrestling (having only introduced women's freestyle competitions in 2004). FILA (now
United World Wrestling), the governing body of Olympic wrestling, immediately criticized the decision. The organization cited wrestling's long-standing history as an Olympic event, which dates as far back as the
ancient Olympic Games. The decision resulted in immediate backlash;
Armen Nazaryan and
Sagid Murtazaliev both returned gold medals to the IOC in protest, while Nazaryan also staged a
hunger strike until the
2013 European Wrestling Championships. FILA president Raphaël Martinetti resigned after a vote of non-confidence by the organization's staff. Martinetti was replaced as acting president by
Nenad Lalović. Under his leadership, the organization began to make changes to its Olympic programme for 2016, including rule changes designed to make bouts faster and encourage more aggression, as well as additional women's weight classes. These changes were intended to help improve audience interest, and address the shortcomings that likely led to the removal of the sport; wrestling joined
baseball/
softball, as well as
squash, on a final shortlist of three sports to be included in the core Olympic programme for 2020. Lalović was largely credited for his role in the reinstatement; he remarked that "normally this is done in a few years, we did it in a few months. It was a question of our survival." ==Events==