Wrestling was brought back into the Olympic programme for the 2020 and 2024 Olympic Games on Sunday, after it beat baseball/softball and squash before undergoing reforms since being provisionally dropped in February.
According to Sport24, wrestling obtained a majority of 49 votes in a secret ballot among 95 members of the International Olympic Committee after all three sports had made a 20-minute presentation.
Baseball/softball, not on the programme since 2008, got 24 votes and squash, bidding to become a new Olympic sport, had to settle for 22, the report said.
Wrestling was dropped by the IOC executive board in February, but got into a shortlist with the other two in order to get back into the Games through widespread reform and lobbying from many countries including an unlikely Russia-Iran-US alliance, the report added.
