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Post by Gary Roberts on Apr 18, 2005 5:54:19 GMT -5
It was also announced in Vegas that Armwrestling has been recognized by FILA (International Federation of Associated Wrestling Styles) as a legitimate sport that should be considered for affiliation with their organization which could lead to Olympic recognition. I don't know all of the details but I thought it was important to mention that SIMON BERRIOCHOA got the ball rolling on this even before world's last year emailing over 70 contacts and doing research on "how to get into the Olympics".
Thank you Simon for all of your efforts. You truly are an asset to this sport.
From a brief talk with Simon I learned this much.
----There are two ways to try and get into the Olympics. An individual campain which requires time and money...his example was triathalons. They said that their efforts to get into the Olympics required 10 years and 15 million dollars. (I think those were the numbers)
OR THE other appproach was affiliation. His example was syncronized swimming. The wouldn't have ever been recognized by the IOC without being affiliated with the overall swimming. Simon correct me if I am wrong in any of this.
So that lead Simon to contact FILA and then requested from WAF to have discussions with FILA on the possibility of affiliation which lead to a meeting in Switzerland last week with Willy D.
Which lead to the possibility of armwrestling being in the 2006 Olympics as a "demonstrator sport" which I don't know the meaning of but I am sure it is a great start for the sport of armwrestling...
so again thank you Simon!!!!
Gary
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Post by jamesretarides on Apr 18, 2005 6:58:10 GMT -5
Fantastic. Good job Mr. Berriochoa. Your diligence is unrivaled my friend and looks as though it has payed off.  |
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Post by Chris Gangi on Apr 18, 2005 7:58:37 GMT -5
THAT'S AWESOME NEWS....
like steven said it would be historic to see armwrestling be a part of the olympics...
my guess is it would be part of the summer games.
thank you simon for all of your hard work and fortitude for not giving up.
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Post by Steve Kirlew on Apr 18, 2005 8:21:22 GMT -5
Amazing!!!  Armwrestling seems to be taking giant leaps forward!!! This ia great! ;D |
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Post by Willie Reagan on Apr 18, 2005 17:18:09 GMT -5
Well said Steve!! Armwrestling is taking great steps forward. Simon, we all thank you for what you have done so far. Keep up the good work. I can tell you all this much, promote the sport to the youth, they are the future. I am so glad that my son and daughter both pull. My daughter is 11, but she is training. I hope to see my kids in the Olympics someday!!
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Post by Christ Russakis on Apr 18, 2005 17:33:32 GMT -5
willie you said it all!! that is great news!! i've been hearing for twenty years, that we were going to get to the olympics. and now because we have people out there like SIMON that pushed that extra mile to get looked at.,it might be possable. thanks for all your effort simon.
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Post by Christopher Myers on Apr 19, 2005 23:30:12 GMT -5
HMMMMMMM? where did that Idea come from mr Berriochoa?  knew you were the man for the job from the begining ..... unfortunately also knew your hard work would never truly be recognozed for what it is worth..... Christopher Myers |
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Post by Valerie Beach on Apr 19, 2005 23:45:06 GMT -5
Simon you rock!!!!!!! ;D thank you for what you have done this is such great news before the estimate was in 4 years but, to have it 2006.......thats awesome! props to you ;D
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Post by Steve Kirlew on Apr 20, 2005 3:50:48 GMT -5
HMMMMMMM? knew you were the man for the job from the begining ..... unfortunately also knew your hard work would never truly be recognozed for what it is worth..... Christopher Myers What does this mean Christopher? Does it mean that the step forward is not a very good one in your opinion??? Just curious. |
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Post by Chris Coletti on Apr 20, 2005 16:06:11 GMT -5
There will be a winter Olympics in 2006...Pulling on ice!
Maybe he just meant 2008.
I know that they have been saying this since 1986...back then they told us that it was going in as a "spectator sport."
I also thought that demonstration sports were eliminated from the Olympics completely back in 1996.
Simon let us know what's up...If you were to tell me that we would be on ESPN and FOX sports a year ago I would have doubted that also so anything is possible!
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Post by Christopher Myers on Apr 20, 2005 16:53:53 GMT -5
Stephen, it means Simon and I spent many hours trying to figure out how to do what he has now done. He and I figured between us what we were both best suited for when it came to the improvement to armwrestling and he has done his job flawlessly ! it just saddens me to know that people will never give him the due credit he deserves for all his hard work !! or realize how brilliant he was implementing our plan that we started a year ago. Bravo to Simon an unspoken hero in Armwrestling ( and to Chris M who motivated him to do it ) Christopher Myers |
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Post by Gary Roberts on Apr 20, 2005 17:04:40 GMT -5
That is why I posted it on this board because they glossed over his involvement at the tournament.
Next time I see him we will do an all out interview on how it happened to put up on ARM TV.
This weekend was so crazy we didn't get to do it.
Gary
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Post by Chris Coletti on Apr 20, 2005 21:20:12 GMT -5
Chris, Congrats on a great showing. I hear you put my bud out |
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Post by leonard on Apr 20, 2005 23:16:37 GMT -5
Chris,
He was recognized in front of the whole event!!!!
It will take some a little time to understand the importance of what has happened. Also the fact that FILA were so interested in our sport should be commended. They have received us with open arms (sorry for the pun) and are eager to have armwrestling (ironic that the word armsport is a negative in this case) as a part of FILA. The finishing touches of this were Willie and his trip to the head quarters of FILA. Simon will and should get a tremendous amount of credit for the hard work that he has done. When it was presented at the Congress, we were hoping that this would be the end result as we gave him permission to continue talks in an official capacity as our representative. ;D
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Post by simon on Apr 21, 2005 11:29:10 GMT -5
Sorry all I have been in very rural Utah since Sunday.
First of all thank you everyone, I am just a puller that loves this sport and like so many others involved in it I want to see great things for it, more clarity and a lot less confusion. There are tons of people involved in armwrestling that are very unselfishly giving of themselves to progress this sport and I personally want to thank them for their years of immense effort.
Mr. Myers thank you for believing that something had to be done and for instilling within me the willingness and the plan to pursue it, I would not have gone after this to this end without your fire to make it happen.
Short version I pursued many sport organizations that are recognized or affiliated with the IOC in an attempt to find out the truth about our ability to move this sport forward on an international level, in the process I learned a great deal, and I came to the conclusion that armwrestling was in need of an affiliation with another existing IOC sport in order to possibly move in this direction. I came across a candidate in the form of a very excited Mr. Martinetti, the President of FILA “the” IOC recognized head of all wrestling styles and one of the largest sporting groups anywhere in the world. After I received approval from the WAF Congress to proceed, we continued discussions about an armwrestling affiliation with FILA to the point that a meeting with Mr. Martinetti was in order. Our GS Willie traveled to meet with them and to work out some details…. (this meeting with the President of FILA was only very recently held, and I received a lot of this information at the Vegas event as well, amid a great deal of distractions from that phenomenal event, so I will try to convey this the best I can).
As I understand it armwrestling has become affiliated with FILA…. The president of FILA Mr. Martinetti is also an officer in some capacity with both the GAISF and the IOC. Again as I understand it, we have the opportunity for armwrestling to be an exhibition sport in the World Games in 2006, and again as an exhibition sport in the Olympics in 2008. The possibilities from there are various, and certainly there are a great many things that need to be worked on but the structure seems very promising.
I truly hope this will be the start of some very great things for armwrestling.
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Armwrestling seems to be taking giant leaps forward!!! This ia great! ;D
