By David Owen at The Hilton in Buenos Aires

The Olympic Hymn at Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires omitted references to wrestling, which is currently trying to retain its place on the programme after Rio 2016September 7 - Wrestling is widely expected to make it onto the 2020 Summer Olympic sports programme when International Olympic Committee (IOC) members vote on the matter here tomorrow.


But the sport is not getting everything its own way here in Argentina.

Take the opening ceremony of the 125th IOC Session at the Teatro Colón last night.

As always at ceremonial Olympic occasions, this glittering event featured a rendition of the Olympic Hymn, or Anthem, composed by Spyridon Samaras for the Athens Olympics of 1896, with lyrics by Kostis Palamas.

Verse two of the literal English translation from the original Greek starts as follows:

"At running and at wrestling and at throwing,

Shine in the momentum of noble contests".

In the glossy bilingual programme produced for the event, however, the - very different - "free" translation was reproduced. This reads:

"Give life and animation to these noble games!

"Throw wreaths of fadeless flowers to the victors

"In the race and in the strife!"

"The key difference?

No wrestling.

Greek composer Spyridon Samaras wrote the Olympic Hymn, including a line about wrestling Greek composer Spyridon Samaras wrote the Olympic Hymn, including a line about wrestling

Was the choice of translation used coloured by the fact that wrestling was not, at the time of the ceremony, guaranteed a continued place on the Olympic sports programme - for the first time since 708BC?

Not according to the IOC.

"We can assure you that there was no deliberate attempt to alter the content of the anthem in any way," a spokeswoman told insidethegames.

"In yesterday's written programme it says 'lutte' in French and 'strife' in English.

"As far as we understand, 'lutte' does not refer to the sport, but to the meaning of 'struggle'.

"Please also note that the English and French translations of the original Greek version were done many years ago."

Just a coincidence, then - but an enticing one for students of Olympic history.

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