Wrestling

Wrestling is the most ancient known competitive sport. Wrestling was introduced into the Ancient Olympic Games in 708 BCE, shortly after the Games’ recorded history begins in 776 BCE. Ancient Olympic champions are recorded from Eurybatos of Sparta (708 BCE) through Aurelius Helix of Phoenicia (213 CE). The most titled champions at Olympia were Milon of Kroton, who won six titles in wrestling (532-512 BCE) and one in boys’ wrestling (540 BCE), and Hipposthenes of Sparta, who won five wrestling titles (624-608 BCE) and one boys’ wrestling title (632 BCE) at Ancient Olympia.

Only in Paris 1900 has wrestling not been on the modern Olympic Programme. There are four main forms of amateur competitive wrestling practiced in the world: Greco-Roman wrestling, freestyle wrestling, judo wrestling, and sambo wrestling. Judo is considered a separate sport at the Olympics. Sambo 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 at the Olympics. There are also multiple regional variants of wrestling styles throughout the world.

Currently, both freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling are contested at the Olympics, and both have been held together since Antwerpen 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 Programme at Athinai 2004.

The dominant country in wrestling has been the Soviet Union and its former republics, especially in the Greco-Roman style. The United States (USA) is close to the Soviets in freestyle, however, and have even surpassed them in total number of medals won. As of 2024, the USA is only three gold medals away from the Soviet Union’s 62 gold medals. Other nations that produce good wrestlers include Japan, Russia, Türkiye, Sweden, and Finland.

Cuba’s Mijaín López has uniquely won five medals at the Olympics, all gold. He is followed by the Soviet Aleksandr Karelin, with three golds and one silver medal, and by Wilfried Dietrich, who has won five medals at the Olympics (including one gold) while representing Germany and West Germany.

Among women, Kaori Icho (JPN) has won four consecutive gold medals from 2004-2016, with her countrywoman Saori Yoshida winning three golds (2004-2012) and a silver medal in 2016. One other female weightlifter, Mariya Stadnik (AZE), has also won four medals in Olympic wrestling (but no golds).

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.

The sport’s international federation, United World Wrestling (UWW), was formed in 1921, and has 246 member federations from 190 countries and territories as of January 2026. Its original name was the International Amateur Wrestling Federation (IAWF) or, in French, the Fédération Internationale des Luttes Amateur (FILA). The organization was renamed as the International Federation of Amateur Wrestling in 1952, to Fédération Internationale des Luttes Associées (FILA) in 1994, and to its current name in September 2014.

The forerunner of the UWW was the Internationale Ring Verband, which was formed in 1912 at the Stockholm Olympics, and was the first organization only responsible for wrestling. Before 1921, wrestling was also governed by the Amateur-Athleten- Weltunion (1905-1907), along with weightlifting, and later by the Internationaler Weltverband für Schwerathletik until 1920, which governed not only wrestling and weightlifting, but also boxing, tug-of-war, and weight throwing.