No wrestling? WTF?

OK, so the news is out that the Olympics has dumped wrestling from its roster of sports. And everyone is going apeshit, as is to be expected. I mean, wrestling may not be the most exciting summer Olympic event out there, but really? Isn't getting rid of one of the original Olympic events a bit on the silly side?

I would say it's like dumping the swimsuit competition from the Miss Universe competition, but Miss Universe only dates back to the 50s. Olympic wrestling goes all the way back to the beginnings of the games, as in ancient f-ing Greece.

One side note, though, has been bugging me since the announcement was made. The cities currently in the running to be host of the 2020 Olympics are Istanbul, Madrid and Tokyo. Um, don't get me wrong, but aren't these cities all in countries big time into wrestling?

Wrestling is Turkey's number 1 Olympic sport by far: 28 of 39 gold and 58 of the 87 medals the country has ever won in the summer games came in wrestling (wiki page here). For Japan it's close. Wrestling is Japan's third best sport, with around 15% of their summer medals coming in wrestling (data here).

And Spain... Wait. Spain has done nothing in wrestling. As in like no medals at all. OK, my bad. I guess they bronzed in wrestling once (wikiwikiwiki).

So if Madrid is picked then the no wrestling decision means nothing to the host. And if it goes to Tokyo or Istanbul then they are specifically holding the games in a country that just got a favorite event shit-canned. Wow. What awesome timing.

Unless you're Spanish. Then you're reading the news about no wrestling with a "So what?" look on your face.