United World Wrestling

Men’s wrestling was part of the first edition of the modern Olympic Games, at Athinai 1896, and the first unofficial World Greco-Roman Wrestling Championship was organized in 1904, in Wien (Vienna) (then part of Austro-Hungary). The sport’s international governing body was founded as the Amateur-Athleten-Weltunion in 1905, overseeing both wrestling and weightlifting. In 1912, the organization became the Internationaler Weltverband für Schwerathletik, rebranded to Internationaler Amateur-Weltverband für Schwerathletik only one year later, as a multi-sport federation.

During the Antwerpen Olympic Games, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) recommended the creation of independent federations for each sport. The Fédération Internationale des Luttes Amateur (FILA), also known as International Amateur Wrestling Federation (IAWF), was thus created during the IOC Olympic Congress in Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1921. From 1952 onwards, the organization would be known as the International Federation of Amateur Wrestling, renamed in 1994 to Fédération Internationale des Luttes Associées (or International Federation of Associated Wrestling Styles) until September 2014, when it re-branded itself as United World Wrestling (UWW).

It can also be said that the forerunner of the UWW was the Internationale Ring Verband, which was also formed in 1912 at the Stockholm Olympics, and was the first organization only responsible for wrestling.

Women wrestlers started competing at the World Championships in 1987, in Lørenskog, Norway, while the men’s competitions were held in Clermont-Ferrand, France, in that year. Women entered the Olympic programme at Athinai 2004, and the 2005 World Wrestling Championships were the first to stage men and women competitions at the same venue.

Wrestling has also been part of the Youth Summer Olympics since the competition’s début at Singapore 2010, with Greco-Roman events for boys, and freestyle events for boys and girls, in line with the senior contests.

Besides the Olympic disciplines, the UWW also oversees competitions in other associated styles, including beach wrestling, Alysh, belt wrestling, grappling, and pankration. As of January 2026, the UWW has 246 member federations from 190 countries or territories. The organization’s headquarters is located in Corsier-sur-Vevey, Switzerland, and its current president is Serbia’s Nenad Lalović.