Wrestling

Wrestling is the most ancient known competitive sport. Wrestling was introduced into the Ancient Olympic Games in 708 B.C., shortly after the Games’ recorded history begins in 776 B.C. Ancient Olympic champions are recorded from Eurybatos of Sparta (708 B.C.) through Aurelius Aelix of Phoenicia (213 A.D.). The most titled champions at Olympia were Milon of Kroton, who won five titles in wrestling (532‑516 B.C.) and one in boys’ wrestling (540 B.C.), and Hipposthenes of Sparta, who also won five wrestling titles (624‑608 B.C.) and one boys’ wrestling title (632 B.C.) at Ancient Olympia.

Only in 1900 has wrestling not been on the Olympic Program. There are four main forms of amateur competitive wrestling practiced in the world – Greco-Roman wrestling, freestyle wrestling, judo wrestling, and sombo wrestling. Judo is considered a separate sport at the Olympics. Sombo is a combination of freestyle and judo and is most popular in the Asian republics of the former Soviet Union, but it has not yet been contested in the Olympics. Currently, both freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling are contested at the Olympics and both have been held since 1920. Prior to that (except in 1908), only one form was used, usually Greco-Roman. Freestyle wrestling is similar to American collegiate style, or folkstyle wrestling. Holds are relatively unlimited, provided they are not dangerous, and can be applied to any part of the body. Greco-Roman wrestling limits holds to the upper body. Women’s freestyle wrestling was added to the Olympic Program in 2004 at Athens.

The dominant country in wrestling has been the Soviet Union and its former republics, especially in Greco-Roman style. The United States is close to the Soviets in freestyle, however. Other nations that produce good wrestlers include Iran, Turkey, and Japan. Eight wrestlers have won three Olympic gold medals, with Aleksandr Karelin (URS/EUN/RUS) and Artur Taymazov (UZB) also winning a silver medal for four medals in all.

The wrestling international federation was known as the Fédération internationale de luttes associées (FILA), which was formed in 1912 and had 176 affiliated nations as of 2018. In September 2014 the name of the federation was changed to United World Wrestling (UWW).

Wrestling is govern by the United World Wrestling (UWW), which was formed in 1921 as International Amateur Wrestling Federation (IAWF). The organization was renamed to International Federation of Amateur Wrestling in 1952 and to Fédération internationale des luttes associées (FILA) in 1994 and to its current name in September 2014. The forerunner Internationale Ring Verband was formed in 1912 at the Stockholm Olympics and was the first organization only responsible for wrestling. Before 1921 wrestling was also governed in Amateur Athleten Weltunion (1905-1907), Internationaler Weltverband für Schwerathletik (1913-1920), and Internationaler Kraftsportverband (1920-1921), who did not only govern wrestling, but also boxing, tug-of-war, weight throwing, and weightlifting.