FILA president says wrestling ‘will surprise everyone next year’

By George Georgakopoulos and Spyridoula Spanea

Wrestling is looking up after the tremor that rocked it last year with the temporary exclusion from the Olympic schedule that was lifted a few months later. The sport’s international governing body (FILA) continues the reforms in this most traditional of sports, aiming at inclusion in the Olympic core when the International Olympic Committee compiles the list of essential sports of the Games in 2017. Greece will play a key part in this campaign.

FILA President Nenad Lalovic spoke to Kathimerini about the sport’s effort to reach out to more people and more countries, by transforming its image without changing anything of its spirit, which the Serb head of the federation summarizes in the words: “We hate blood!”

He also explained the changes FILA is introducing to wrestling and to itself, he praised the reforming effort of new IOC president Thomas Bach and stressed the significance of having international wrestling events at Ancient Olympia.

Lalovic was in Greece on the occasion of the 2014 World Beach Wrestling Championship that took place on July 3-6 at Paralia Katerinis, in central Macedonia, and revealed that this fast-growing form of wrestling will form part of the World Beach Games.

How did you see the organization of this World Beach Wrestling Championship in Greece? Were you happy with the hosting effort?

Of course, it was fantastic as we had expected it to be. The championship will make the sport more popular in Greece, too. We’ll have to think about beach wrestling seriously in the future, as it will form part of the World Beach Games and we have also negotiated to participate in the Asian Beach Games in...