NYTimes - Olympics people to watch - no wrestling

[nom 1,186]

Article in NYT listing out athletes to watch at the Olympics.  Love it, trying to spin up interest.  

Canoeing

Handball

Sport Climbing

Skateboarding

Table Tennis

… all have people listed and nice descriptions.  Often multiple people.  And of course there is swimming, etc.

Nada, zip, zilch on wrestling.  I expected Steveson or maybe Dake.  Nope.  Pretty disappointing.  Both make for great stories.

 

 

Edited June 27, 2021 by nom

[cjc007 774]

Article in NYT listing out athletes to watch at the Olympics.  Love it, trying to spin up interest.  
Canoeing
Handball
Sport Climbing
Skateboarding
Table Tennis
… all have people listed and nice descriptions.  Often multiple people.  And of course there is swimming, etc.
Nada, zip, zilch on wrestling.  I expected Steveson or maybe Dake.  Nope.  Pretty disappointing.  Both make for great stories.
 
 

We have Cornhole tournaments televisied nationally while wrestling dies in the shadows. Sad.

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[1032004 1,414]

I would think Dake would definitely have been one to call out, since non wrestling fans probably don’t know him although he took out the one guy that those people may have actually heard of.

Then of course would think Maroulis or Snyder would get a mention as returning gold medalists.  Steveson noteworthy but probably down on the list of people that non wrestling fans would care about IMO.

Edited June 27, 2021 by 1032004

[IronChef 1,074]

We have Cornhole tournaments televisied nationally while wrestling dies in the shadows. Sad.

Sent from my moto z3 using Tapatalk

This "woe is me" attitude is dumb. Wrestling is the 3rd most watched sport on BTN. NCAA coverage seems to increase every year. There are new college teams every year, and far more added than dropped. Girls wrestling might be the fastest growing high school sport. By no standard is wrestling "dying in the shadows."

[Katie 1,076]

Normal people who never wrestled do not enjoy watching wrestling. It’s just not spectator friendly. That’s just the truth. 

Edited June 27, 2021 by Katie

[AnklePicker 643]

1 hour ago, Katie said:

Normal people who never wrestled do not enjoy watching wrestling. It’s just not spectator friendly. That’s just the truth. 

What about abnormal people who have never wrestled?

[wrestlingphish 1,023]

12 hours ago, cjc007 said:

We have Cornhole tournaments televisied nationally while wrestling dies in the shadows. Sad.

Sent from my moto z3 using Tapatalk
 

Pretty large indictment of USA Wrestling's leadership.

If wrestling is as exciting as we claim it to be, then those in charge must be colossal failures when it comes to marketing and engagement. 

[HawkY 112]

If something is from your sphere of interest, so many things seem important and sound like they have a compelling story to tell.  The more into it you are and the closer you are too the ground level the stronger the effect.  Thats not how people outside the wrestling bubble perceive it. 

Biggest two angles to get into a list like this are athletic excellence and human interest. 

I didn't read the article so I don't know how compelling the other athletes are.

For the wrestlers, I don't think there is a particularly strong candidate in either category or combination.  No wrestler who would stand out in the teams of the past .

None of them are going for a major record in the sport. Dake, Taylor, Gilman, would just be first time winners. There isn't really a wrestler who is a heavy favorite to win gold.

And then for the character side. Taylor, Snyder, Dake, Gilman, are pretty normal people right. There is no part time African big game hunter, who is best friends with Logan Paul, and was  recently kidnapped, held for ransom. No one who beat cancer or won the distinguished service cross.  

Gable wants to be in the WWE afterwards and Kyle Dake won two medals in another weight class. Those are the strongest cases. Do any of those have to make the cut,  when comparing them to athletes in the other sports?

Trying to be unbiased and put myself in the shoes of non wrestling person who comes up with a guide for the overall program. As a wrestling fan, I don't think there is someone who def should be in there, so I understand why they wouldn't include anyone. 

 

[LJB 2,093]

niche' sport is niche'...

expecting anything else is just setting yourself up for disappointment...

take solace in the fact that our guys are stars in other countries...

 

[bnwtwg 1,022]

3 hours ago, wrestlingphish said:

Pretty large indictment of USA Wrestling's leadership.

If wrestling is as exciting as we claim it to be, then those in charge must be colossal failures when it comes to marketing and engagement. 

StaleMates is an outstanding example of trying to change the status quo to a more exciting product, and so is the competition between Flo and the upstart Rokfin. The momentum for rapid change is happening and it’s great to see. Hopefully the old guard at USAW keeps up or gets out of the way.

[gowrestle 689]

12 hours ago, Katie said:

Normal people who never wrestled do not enjoy watching wrestling. It’s just not spectator friendly. That’s just the truth. 

Lots of wrestling people don’t enjoy watching the sport especially freestyle. Freestyle rules are just dumb. 

[nom 1,186]

@HawkY - there are some write ups in the article that highlight an extra bit of ‘flair’ such as defense of women’s rights.  But many do not ….  Also, I should have mentioned that the article highlights U.S. and non-U.S. athletes.  They tended to highlight dominant athletes … plenty of chance to mention wrestling there.  Saduleav is an obvious one with chance to mention Snyder.
 

here is one example write up … there are others like it.  Not much ‘flair’ here.

In rowing, the eight-oared boats get most of the headlines. But in the boathouses and on the docks, there is no more revered figure than the single sculler, who takes on exhausting races with no teammates to help. Right now the world’s best is Puspure, who has won the last two world championships. Latvian born, she races for Ireland. She was eliminated in the Olympic quarterfinals in 2012 and 2016, but now the burden of expectations is on her to bring home Ireland’s first rowing gold medal. Hanna Prakhatsen of Russia is the up-and-comer hoping to knock her off.

 

[LJB 2,093]

13 hours ago, gowrestle said:

Lots of wrestling people don’t enjoy watching the sport especially freestyle. Freestyle rules are just dumb. 

does anyone want to explain how many more people watch free than the the stall fest?

[1032004 1,414]

On 6/27/2021 at 10:18 PM, HawkY said:

If something is from your sphere of interest, so many things seem important and sound like they have a compelling story to tell.  The more into it you are and the closer you are too the ground level the stronger the effect.  Thats not how people outside the wrestling bubble perceive it. 

Biggest two angles to get into a list like this are athletic excellence and human interest. 

I didn't read the article so I don't know how compelling the other athletes are.

For the wrestlers, I don't think there is a particularly strong candidate in either category or combination.  No wrestler who would stand out in the teams of the past .

None of them are going for a major record in the sport. Dake, Taylor, Gilman, would just be first time winners. There isn't really a wrestler who is a heavy favorite to win gold.

And then for the character side. Taylor, Snyder, Dake, Gilman, are pretty normal people right. There is no part time African big game hunter, who is best friends with Logan Paul, and was  recently kidnapped, held for ransom. No one who beat cancer or won the distinguished service cross.  

Gable wants to be in the WWE afterwards and Kyle Dake won two medals in another weight class. Those are the strongest cases. Do any of those have to make the cut,  when comparing them to athletes in the other sports?

Trying to be unbiased and put myself in the shoes of non wrestling person who comes up with a guide for the overall program. As a wrestling fan, I don't think there is someone who def should be in there, so I understand why they wouldn't include anyone. 

 

Without having read the article I would assume Maroulis would have been, being the returning gold medalist and the first ever US women's gold medalist, not to mention coming back from the injuries she had.

Even Snyder as the returning gold medalist, maybe even throw in a bit about him going to a "rival" club.

Of course if they want to get some non-wrestling fans talking about wrestling, they could always interview Dake about his training philosophies...

[HawkY 112]

40 minutes ago, 1032004 said:

Without having read the article I would assume Maroulis would have been, being the returning gold medalist and the first ever US women's gold medalist, not to mention coming back from the injuries she had.

Even Snyder as the returning gold medalist, maybe even throw in a bit about him going to a "rival" club.

Of course if they want to get some non-wrestling fans talking about wrestling, they could always interview Dake about his training philosophies...

Rival club? Thats levels of esoteric wrestling knowledge I wouldn't include even in a  wrestling focused guide let alone a general Olympic one. Snyder is one of the returning medalists, thats  about it. He is not the favorite, he is not going for a record,  and he hasn't faced Sad enough for a rivalry storyline. I

Most of the other sports have some Dake type "philosopher". We just don't know about them because you have to follow the sport to know about . Same thing with injuries. Unless you beat cancer or broke every bone in our body in a wreck,  everyones been banged up and made sacrifices. It doesn't stand out.  

[1032004 1,414]

34 minutes ago, HawkY said:

Rival club? Thats levels of esoteric wrestling knowledge I wouldn't include even in a  wrestling focused guide let alone a general Olympic one. Snyder is one of the returning medalists, thats  about it. He is not the favorite, he is not going for a record,  and he hasn't faced Sad enough for a rivalry storyline. I

Most of the other sports have some Dake type "philosopher". We just don't know about them because you have to follow the sport to know about . Same thing with injuries. Unless you beat cancer or broke every bone in our body in a wreck,  everyones been banged up and made sacrifices. It doesn't stand out.  

Snyder going to NLWC wouldn't even make a wrestling-focused guide?  I get that the whole RTC concept is probably foreign to non-wrestling fans (and some wrestling ones), but it was a pretty big deal in the wrestling world IMO, although I guess it had more impact on the NCAA landscape than anything

Well Maroulis stands out because she was the first US women's wrestling gold medalist...

The Dake comment was kinda a joke.    I know most people wouldn't care about it going into the games...but I could see it making a few articles if he gets interviewed after a possible gold medal...

[gowrestle 689]

7 hours ago, LJB said:

does anyone want to explain how many more people watch free than the the stall fest?

Don’t have the numbers but I think it’s fair to say that the NCAA tournament draws more viewers over 3 days than “free” does in a year. If you add in the top drawing college teams and high school tournaments, the numbers are astounding. Unfortunately for wrestling, standard sport fans don’t tune in. 

[cjc007 774]

Don’t have the numbers but I think it’s fair to say that the NCAA tournament draws more viewers over 3 days than “free” does in a year. If you add in the top drawing college teams and high school tournaments, the numbers are astounding. Unfortunately for wrestling, standard sport fans don’t tune in. 

Are you including all the fans of wrestling worldwide or just The American fans?

 

You know the ones who only follow it for their team at NCAA's?

 

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[LJB 2,093]

4 hours ago, cjc007 said:

Are you including all the fans of wrestling worldwide or just The American fans?

the only "fans" that matter are the ones in the 5 block radius of smallville, USA...

duh...

[Lurker 2,033]

On 6/27/2021 at 8:22 PM, wrestlingphish said:

Pretty large indictment of USA Wrestling's leadership.

If wrestling is as exciting as we claim it to be, then those in charge must be colossal failures when it comes to marketing and engagement. 

No axe to grind here at all.

[HawkY 112]

8 hours ago, gowrestle said:

Don’t have the numbers but I think it’s fair to say that the NCAA tournament draws more viewers over 3 days than “free” does in a year. If you add in the top drawing college teams and high school tournaments, the numbers are astounding. Unfortunately for wrestling, standard sport fans don’t tune in. 

There are countries with functionally no broader wrestling culture (so no fandom), but they have really well run and tight knit wrestling programs (often associated with the military) that still manage to recruit and produce world/continental medalists. 

 

[lu_alum 920]

Wrestling probably not mentioned due to Burroughs losing to Dake.  Peacock had prepared a documentary heading into the trials, and I assume the JB would have been part of the pre-Olympic buildup hype (as he was in 2016).

[wrestlingphish 1,023]

1 hour ago, Lurker said:

No axe to grind here at all.

Care to elaborate? 

[Lurker 2,033]

1 minute ago, wrestlingphish said:

Care to elaborate? 

I just don't see how what a writer at the New York Times chooses to write about is a large indictment of the USAW leadership as colossal failures.  I guess that writer's choice in essay overrides the growth in participation numbers (both individual numbers and schools offering), TV and streaming deals, viewership, etc etc etc.  

 

But then again I don't have an axe to grind so I guess I wouldn't see it.

[wrestlingphish 1,023]

7 minutes ago, Lurker said:

I just don't see how what a writer at the New York Times chooses to write about is a large indictment of the USAW leadership as colossal failures.  I guess that writer's choice in essay overrides the growth in participation numbers (both individual numbers and schools offering), TV and streaming deals, viewership, etc etc etc.  

 

But then again I don't have an axe to grind so I guess I wouldn't see it.

It might be helpful if you actually look at the post I was responding to (which I had quoted) that is more focused around TV exposure and streaming deals not the NYT article.

Also, I am not saying that wrestling's leadership is a colossal failure. I am saying that if wrestling is as amazing and as exciting as we say it is, we should be farther along than the cornhole crew. The other side of that coin is that wrestling is not as exciting to the masses as we think it is and the fine folks at USA wrestling are doing the best they can with a bad hand.