How much better could it have gotten? It was beginning to look like there was some light being shed on the sport of wrestling.    The Title IX town hall hearings being held across the United States seemed productive in helping to squash gender quotas. Utah Valley State College had decided to add wrestling as their thirteenth sport to elevate themselves to Division I status. But then, the bomb hit.    The International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided to put the sport of amateur wrestling on the chopping block from the Olympic Games along with baseball, softball and modern pentathlon.    The reasons? They have plenty of excuses.    First, the IOC is interested in adding rugby and golf. Second, the IOC is looking for sports that have "popularity, universality, that it not cost too much, not hurt the athletes health, and bring necessary diversity". Third, the IOC took a shot at wrestling by saying one discipline, either freestyle or Greco-Roman, should be eliminated because of "low public and media comprehension of the differences between the two disciplines".    To tackle the rugby and golf issue - IOC President Jacques Rogge has stated publicly before that the Olympic Games cap the number of medals awarded. I have a great idea. Stop adding sports. With rugby's international appeal and brute physical skills, it will be hard to keep this sport out of the Olympics.    But golf? Golf? Is this for real? The IOC has begun to look at the Olympic Games as a money-machine, as though they are an NFL franchise. The adding of golf would depend on one thing only. Will Tiger Woods play? Simply put, an Olympic medal is supposed to be the pinnacle of any athlete's career. Professional golfers earn millions of dollars per year, and sometimes per event.    Currently 56 professional golfers have earned over $1 million this season. 252 golfers have earned over $50,000 this season, which is higher than the average household income in the U.S. With all of this money floating around, does a gold medal, taking a week off with no possibility of earning money, or any other Olympic reality excite professional golfers? Probably not.    The IOC wants to look at popularity, universality, cost, health and diversity? Internationally, wrestling is one of the world's most popular sports. Over 150 countries are represented by FILA, the international governing body of amateur wrestling. That number alone covers popularity, universality and diversity.    How many other countries participate in golf? Outside of the U.S., Australia and the U.K., not too many. In reality would we ever expect a golfer from Egypt, Norway or Turkey to have a chance at capturing an Olympic medal?    Wrestling is also one of the most cost-effective sports in the world. It does not take much money to field a wrestling team, but it takes a lot more money to golf.    Lastly, the IOC also does not feel that the media comprehends freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling. They want to make it easier on people by simply eliminating one style.    Is this in the same fashion that almost nobody understands trampolining? How about synchronized swimming? How many major stories has ping-pong (err, table tennis) created for the world in recent years?    The biggest star of the 2000 Olympics in any sport from any country came out of Greco-Roman wrestling - Rulon Gardner.    Can anyone remember the first sport ever installed into the original Olympic Games in 1896? Of course not, because none of us were alive. But from our readings we know that it was Greco-Roman wrestling. Freestyle wrestling was added soon after.    The Greeks and the Romans must be rolling in their graves to hear the Rogge is interested in dropping one style of wrestling from the Olympics. They never meant for the Olympics to be where they are now. The Olympics were supposed to be a competition of strength, skill and speed all put into one.    Of course it takes skill to jump around on a trampoline, but does that mean that "Girls on Trampolines" at the end of "The Man Show" should be used as an Olympic qualifier?    It is not the place of the IOC to simply kill off a sport. That is not the purpose of the Olympics.  But if either discipline of wrestling were dropped, that is what would happen. Countries would lose a great number of opportunities to realize their Olympic dreams.    Many in the world are unable to golf. Courses are not lined up in the poorest of Africa's nations or in countries where the winter never seems to end. But there is one thing that all of them are able to do - wrestle.    The IOC has already hurt wrestling bad enough. After the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, Ga., two weight classes were taken away from freestyle and Greco-Roman. Following the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia, another weight class was taken away from each style.    Even though four weight classes were added for women's freestyle at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, isn't it time that the IOC begins to look at the damage they are creating? By cutting six total men's weight classes in just six years, the IOC has taken away many Olympic dreams and opportunities.    The lights are dimming in wrestling's Olympic venue as this is written. Will the IOC help us to replace the circuit, or will they just let the bulb slowly die?    Editor's Note: The wrestling community is encouraged to write letters of support for amateur wrestling to the IOC. You can either use the online form at www.suggestions.olympic.org/question-intro.aspx?LN=EN or write:    IOC Executive Board  Chateau de Vidy  1007 Lausanne  Switzerland  Fax: 011 (41.21) 621 62 16