On Sept. 8, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) added the sport of wrestling to the 2020 summer Olympics. The sports of baseball, softball and squash were not added by the IOC.

Seven months after the IOC voted to dismiss wrestling as a competition at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, the IOC reinstated the sport on Sept. 8. 

“While we are obviously disappointed with the decision of the International Olympic Committee to not move forward with baseball and softball for inclusion on the Olympic program in 2020, we continue to believe the combined efforts of baseball and softball provide a great platform for international competition and we look forward to continuing our joint efforts of growing baseball and softball worldwide,” said Paul Seiler, president and CEO of USA Baseball, in a statement.

Former UNA baseball player and current outfielder for the Minnesota Twins Josh Willngham said not having baseball in the olympics is not that big of a deal.

“I think the World Baseball Classic is great,” he said. “You can’t have (baseball) in the summer Olympics unless it’s with non professional baseball players… no professionals are gonna play during the off-season.”

The World Baseball Classic, is an international tournament played every four years in  the summer. The tournament features teams from 16 different countries. Japan took the first two titles in 2006 and 2009, with the Dominican Republic taking the most recent title in 2013.

“Obviously, I would like to see baseball in the Olympics,” said UNA’s Head Baseball Coach Mike Keehn. 

Keehn would like to see Olympic baseball played by college players, he said.

“I liked when USA baseball consisted of college players competing on the national stage,” he said. “ It was great to see the future stars competing for USA and a tremendous opportunity for the college players to play for their country.  It is hard for Major League players to be asked to not play for their teams during their season, plus the World Baseball Classic effects play in the Olympics.”

Softball did not get selected as a sport in the 2020 Olympics either.

 “The Olympics are softball’s stage and to take that away does not make sense,” Keehn said.  “I would like to see both sports reinstated, and since the major league players have the World Baseball Classic, let’s give the Olympics back to the college players as it was in 1992.”

1992 was the first year that the sport of baseball was played in the Summer Olympics. Softball was added for the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.

Softball and baseball were voted out of the 2012 Olympics in 2008 and will not return in 2016 or 2020. Sophomore Jonathan Slatton, who wrestled in high school, said he was happy to see that the IOC added wrestling back to the Olympics.

“It was always a childhood dream to wrestle in the Olympics,” he said. “It makes me extremely satisfied to know wrestling will continue to grow in our culture and in the Olympic society.”

In February, the IOC voted to remove wrestling from the 2020 Olympics and any future Olympic games.

The sport was reinstated on Sept. 8, just days after it was announced that Tokyo would host the 2020 Summer Olympics.

“It would have been such a loss if one of the oldest recorded sports were lost to the world,” Slatton said.

Squash was another sport that was not voted into the 2020 Olympics.

Sports Editor James Dubuisson contributed to this story.