Who said wrestling can't keep up with the times? The Extraordinary Congress of the International Wrestling Federation (FILA) has left many people confused over the last two days in Moscow. Its members have dusted off their old regulations, without fear of disrupting customs. An operation that resembles that of the last chance for a sport threatened with disappearance from the Summer Olympic Games program from 2020.

Several changes were adopted by the FILA General Assembly, all aimed at making the discipline more modern, accessible and spectacular. The fights will now take place in two rounds of three minutes, instead of three of two minutes. Points will be accumulated and the winner will be the wrestler with the greatest number of points. Until now, the winner was declared the one of the two fighters who won at least two of the three rounds.

A fall will be rewarded with 2 points instead of one. Whereas previously a wrestler could push his opponent off the mat, they will now be encouraged to stay there, in order to maintain the combat's full intensity. Another incentive to attack: if a wrestler is judged too passive, the referee will have the possibility of granting him 30 seconds to score, beyond which a point will be given to the opponent if he has not managed to do so. .

A sign of the urgency of the situation, these new rules adopted at an extraordinary congress will come into force immediately.

Comment from Nenad Lalovic, unanimously confirmed at the Moscow Congress in his role as interim president of FILA: “Now it’s time to move. We could not move forward without this plan. We did what was necessary in our fight to remain part of the Olympic family. »

FILA will apply for a place on the 29 Olympic program in St. Petersburg on May 2020 at the IOC Executive Committee meeting. It will compete with seven other candidate sports: squash, climbing, karate, wushu, baseball/softball, wakeboarding and roller skating. Approval of the 2020 Olympic program will take place during the IOC session in September in Buenos Aires.

With these changes in mind, wrestling is confident about its Olympic future. “If we weren’t, we wouldn’t go to St. Petersburg,” suggests the new FILA boss. According to internal sources at the IOC, wrestling is in a very good position, on par with squash and karate. The hearings at the end of May could prove decisive.