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If the Olympic
Games are a history of mankind, wrestling is the prologue.
When the ancient Games of the Olympiad were born, wrestling
already was an ancient game. Widely recognised as the
world's oldest competitive sport, wrestling appeared in a
series of Egyptian wall paintings as many as 5000 years ago.
When the Games began in 776 BC, more than two millenniums
later, it included wrestling, and, in the years that
followed, wrestling featured as the main event.
The sport
would return in a similar role when the Olympic Games
returned after a 1500-year absence in 1896. Organisers,
seeking direct links to ancient times, found a natural in
the sport that had enjoyed popularity across much of the
ancient world, from Greece, Assyria and Babylon to India,
China and Japan. They resurrected Greco-Roman wrestling, a
style they believed to be an exact carryover from the Greek
and Roman wrestlers of old.
In
Greco-Roman wrestling, the wrestlers used only their arms
and upper bodies to attack. They could hold only those same
parts of their opponents. It worked nicely from a historical
perspective, but another breezier style was sweeping across
Great Britain and the United States by then. Known as "catch
as catch can", it had become standard fare - and popular
professional entertainment - at fairs and festivals in both
countries.
In 1904, the
Olympic Games added the second wrestling event and called it
"freestyle". Now, wrestlers could use their legs for
pushing, lifting and tripping, and they could hold opponents
above or below the waist.
Freestyle
When the modern Olympic Games resumed in Athens in 1896,
organisers considered wrestling so historically significant
that it became a focus of the Games. They remembered tales
of wrestling competition in 708 BC, of oiled bodies fighting
on sand in the ancient Games. Greco-Roman wrestling was
deemed a pure reincarnation of ancient Greek and Roman
wrestling.
Eight years
later, Olympic officials added a second category with far
less history and far less grandeur, but great popularity.
Commonly known as "catch as catch can", freestyle wrestling
had become the staple of 19th-century fairs and festivals in
Great Britain and the United States, a form of professional
entertainment. Like Greco-Roman wrestling, it became a
staple of the Games themselves.
In
Greco-Roman competition, now dominated by Russia, wrestlers
use only their arms and upper bodies to attack. In
freestyle, where Olympic medallists in 1996 represented 17
different countries, wrestlers also use their legs and may
hold opponents above or below the waist.
Competition
At the Olympic Games in Athens 2004 there will be seven
events in mens freestyle. For the first time ever, women
will participate in four freestyle events. There will be a
maximum of 344 athletes participating in the sport.
Greco-Roman
When the modern Olympic Games resumed in Athens in 1896,
organisers considered wrestling so historically significant
that it became a focus of the Games. They remembered tales
of wrestling competition in 708 BC, of oiled bodies fighting
on sand in the ancient Games. Greco-Roman wrestling was
deemed a pure reincarnation of ancient Greek and Roman
wrestling.
Eight years
later, Olympic officials added a second category with far
less history and far less grandeur, but great popularity.
Commonly known as "catch as catch can", freestyle wrestling
had become the staple of 19th-century fairs and festivals in
Great Britain and the United States, a form of professional
entertainment. Like Greco-Roman wrestling, it became a
staple of the Games themselves.
In
Greco-Roman competition, now dominated by Russia, wrestlers
use only their arms and upper bodies to attack. In
freestyle, where Olympic medallists in 1996 represented 17
different countries, wrestlers also use their legs and may
hold opponents above or below the waist.
Competition
At the Olympic Games in Athens 2004 there will be seven
events in men's Greco-Roman. There will be a maximum of 344
athletes participating in the sport.
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