Sydney Olympics gold medallistwrestler Sagid Murtazaliev has sent his gold medal back to the InternationalOlympic Committee (IOC) in protest at the sport being cut from the SummerGames.
The IOC's executive board voted earlier this month to cutwrestling from the list of confirmed sports for the 2020 Olympics, and thesport must now battle seven candidate disciplines for the sole remaining slot.
Russia's Murtazaliev, who won heavyweight freestyle gold atSydney 2000, said he was following the example of Bulgarian champion ValentinYordanov, who sent back his Atlanta 1996 gold medal last week.
"The decision to return my Olympic medal was not easyfor me," Murtazaliev said in a letter addressed to IOC president JacquesRogge and obtained by RIA Novosti.
"But after much thinking, I decided anyway to followthe example of the great Bulgarian wrestler Valentin Yordanov. I took this stepin protest at the recommendation the IOC executive committee recently made toexclude wrestling from the Olympic programme."
The final decision on the Olympic programme for the 2020Games will be made by the IOC in Buenos Aires in September, along with theannouncement of the host city.
Wrestling has been included in various forms at everyOlympics since 1904. In recent years, it has attracted scant spectator interestoutside its stronghold countries and faced claims of corrupt refereeing at theGames.
Wrestling's cause has brought together unlikely allies, withUS and Iranian national Olympic officials among those to call for the sport'sreinstatement.
Russia is a perennial power in Olympicwrestling, and President Vladimir Putin and the country's national Olympiccommittee have both thrown their weight behind the sport's reinstatement.