[Kyryllo]

Originally Posted by Brooklyn

If curling qualifies as an olympic sport, hat so should BJJand sub-grappling.

Who plays "Curling"?

No one.

If by no one you mean more people than bjj, sub grappling and mma combined then yes no one plays it. Other than that curling is in the winter olympics, it's much easier for a sport to come into winter olympics.

[krellik]

Why not have a gi/no-gi optional event, that heavily scores takedowns and leglocks is allowed....

Free for all kind of thing to compete in...

[wannaberua]

Originally Posted by RuleOfSteel2

Kyryllo brings up a major point, bjj does not have an international governing body. Even if the sport establishes one it will need to operate successfully for a few years before even being considered.

As previously mentioned, the sport must be represented in a specific number of countries, and the number is high. Note: curling is a winter sport not summer sport, the winter olympic criteria is different.

I don't see bjj being added to the Olympics. The IOC has made it pretty clear that they don't want the number of participants to grow, so for a sport to be added another will need to be dropped and/or a cut in the number of qualifiers in some other sport(s). Remember the Summer Olympics recently dropped a few sports.

Women's freestyle wrestling was organized for decades, has held a world tournament since 1987, and by 2002 85 of the 140 olympic affiliated countries had women's wrestling teams before their sport was admitted in 2004. And that was at the expense of the men.

Furthermore, the IOC has forced FILA (governing body of wrestling) to cut the number of weight divisions and competitors. Within the past 10-15 years international wrestling has been cut from 10 now down to 7 weight divisions. Part of IOC's reasoning was cutting the men's divisions to add the women's divisions (four). Oddly, in non olympic years the women wrestle in 6 divisions while the men stick to the cut divisions.

As the IOC has pressured FILA to make wrestling more "spectator friendly", the rules have been constantly changing. I don't see them viewing bjj as anything close to spectator friendly. Note, they are looking at it as people who know little or nothing about the sport not as competitors or fans of the sport.

Lastly, FILA is moving to take over sombo. Given FILA's political ties, size and power I think sombo just left bjj & sub wrestling in the dust in the race to the olympics (I'm not saying the Olympics are on sombo's horizon but it is definitely closer for them then for bjj).

FILA sanctioned grappling as well. Last year was the first world championship and I believe drew 12-15 countries. This year they are expecting 35-40 in December. Not on the horizon, but it is a possibility. I do see sambo have a chance to get in quicker than sub grappling.

[radman]

USA wrestling includes grappling and Sambo(Sombo PC version) as part of the wrestling criteria for competition. I give grappling a 50/50 chance because right now there are so many sports in the Olympics, expecially the summer games.

Right now we have freestyle, greco, and Judo. Basically when you think of them, they are really 3 versions of a takedown contest.

I see grappling bridging the 3 wrestling discplines and adding submissions. And I think if grappling became an olympic event, Im betting USA, Russia, Japan, and Brazil would be contending for medals.

[radman]

Originally Posted by wannaberua

FILA sanctioned grappling as well. Last year was the first world championship and I believe drew 12-15 countries. This year they are expecting 35-40 in December. Not on the horizon, but it is a possibility. I do see sambo have a chance to get in quicker than sub grappling.

Sambo? Most of the participating counries in those games are from the former Soviet block. You would get better international representation in grappling.

[Afrofeet]

FILA grappling. maybe even next olympic as a trial sport.

[ozyabbas]

You have got to ask yourself what being in the olympics will do for the sport. Adding more rules is something most people don't want.

I can't see bjj having one organisation to run it all, to be honest I don't know how Gracie Barra has lasted this long considering all the break ups of different teams and the egos involved.

[Will_N.O.]

I can't believe only one other poster has mentioned not tapping as a problem.

Seriously, how many otherwise-sane competitors would simply not tap in Olympic competition? Especially once you get to the medal rounds. You think anyone is going to tap in the gold medal match?

And it would get worse: the refusal to tap would inevitably lead to one or two improbable escapes (out of, say, 100 matches). As soon as that happens, everyone is going to start cranking their subs to the max as fast and as hard as possible.

I am pretty convinced it would be grisly. If it ever made it, I can't see it sticking.

[masterfighter]

MMA will never make the cut because it is too big as a pro sport now (like boxing), how much use would amateur mma really be?
BJJ will never make the cut because of the name, it will not be seen as international enough.

Sub grappling has by far the best chances with only one major disadvantage, there is no clear international structure in the sport. There would have to be national governing bodies and one powerfull international governing body for the sport to be considerd. I for one really hope to see it at the olmpics as i cant think of a better way to increase its populartiy world wide.

[Jagcorps_esq]

Originally Posted by Will_N.O.

I can't believe only one other poster has mentioned not tapping as a problem.

Seriously, how many otherwise-sane competitors would simply not tap in Olympic competition? Especially once you get to the medal rounds. You think anyone is going to tap in the gold medal match?

And it would get worse: the refusal to tap would inevitably lead to one or two improbable escapes (out of, say, 100 matches). As soon as that happens, everyone is going to start cranking their subs to the max as fast and as hard as possible.

I am pretty convinced it would be grisly. If it ever made it, I can't see it sticking.

I don't see not tapping occurring any more in the Olympics than it does in the Mundials or Abu Dhabi, nationals and state levels.

Most people, on the mat, aren't going to even have the time to think "wait, this is the Olympics....I'm not going to tap even though..."

They'll either tap from pain or they won't.