Wrestling Makes the Next Stage to Be Included in the 2020 Olympic Games

The move to save wrestling in the Olympics has officially jumped one hurdle, and now it's a waiting game until a final vote in September that will determine if the sport will still be included in the 2020 games.

During a press conference held on Wednesday, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Executive Committee announced three finalists that made the cut to be voted on by a full session of the IOC in September.

The three sports that have a chance of appearing at the 2020 Olympic games include wrestling, baseball/softball and squash.  The sports that did not make the final cut include karate, wushu, roller sports, wakeboarding and climbing.

A press conference was held to make the announcement and when wrestling was the first sport chosen among the final three, a loud roar came up from the crowd in attendance, elated that the sport made the cut to at least have a shot of making it back to the 2020 games.

The IOC first announced in February that it was cutting wrestling from the 2020 games despite the sport being one of the original competitions in the Olympics.

The move to save Olympic wrestling sparked a fire in every former competitor and fan of the sport to unite and try to help bring it back to the games when the IOC considered potential candidates for a final addition to the 2020 games later in the year.

This first vote narrowed the sports selected down to three, but the fight is far from over.

In September, a full roster of the IOC will meet in Brazil the make the final vote on which sport will make the cut and be a part of the 2020 games.

Earlier this month wrestling's governing body FILA made the decision to alter the rules for the sport in the Olympics, hoping to make it easier to understand and watchable for the audience at large.

These rules include a switch to two three-minute rounds with cumulative scoring throughout instead of the best-two-out-of-three-rounds format it previously used. 

Passivity in wrestling is also being penalized now with a wrestler receiving a verbal warning from the referee if they fail to engage their opponent. A second warning leads to a stop in the action and the penalized wrestler has 30 seconds to score a point or his/her opponent gets the point instead.

The new rules along with the large push to save wrestling in the games by other organizations, including the UFC, will give the sport at least one more shot at making the final list for the 2020 games in September.

Damon Martin is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report and all information was received firsthand unless otherwise noted.