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Freestylefan 9/23/2000

I've just received word from Sydney that the FILA congress has
sent word to the IOC that they will "support" including women in
2004.

This is the good news. But there are still problems. Basically:

There are now 28 or 29 sports in the Games; and about
360 "events" like 100 m breastroke, 51 kgs men's wrestling etc.
The IOC wants to reduce this to no more than 280; while
including women's wrestling would add six.

There is also a principle that women are to be included in all
sports; so that's good...

However, there are now about 320 men in wrestling events, out of
a total of about 15,000 athletes and 12,000 officials. Probably
adding women would mean an additional 90-100 or so.

They really don't want to do this; so the question is whether
the number of men can be reduced enough to get the total under
350 or so. A lot of people have thought about eliminating greco-
roman, which would be one way to do it. However, the greco-
roman people are already there and are on all these committees,
so it might not be easy to get them to agree to their own
demise, or even reduction.

So it seems the outcome is still in doubt. The Athens committee
is not planning on women coming, at this point; but they will do
so if the IOC takes positive action.