The World of Olympic Wrestling
Wrestling is a sport where strength and skill are applied. This sport uses man’s ability to strike, hit and strangle another person. The main objective is to make the opponent fall. In a natural setting, every wild animal competes with each other in order to survive. Man, as an animal, competes to ensure existence. This is how traditional wrestling originated. Due to competition, man developed the skill to strangle and strike until his opponent falls.
History dated wrestling as the oldest sport recorded. It was included in the first Olympics held in 1896. The first Olympics featured eight events with each athlete participating in all of the events. In 1931, the first Amateur Wrestling Championship was staged in New Zealand. It has been held annually ever since. Wrestling, as the oldest sport, is evidenced by Egyptian wall paintings 5,000 years ago. It was played in the ancient times and was made popular before and is still popular today.
Olympic wrestling differs greatly from Pro-Wrestling. Olympic wrestling is purely a sport. Each country represents a team delegated to compete with other countries worldwide for a gold medal. Whereas, Pro-Wrestling, is just a performance art where pro-wrestlers are paid for participating.
Styles of Olympic Wrestling
Greco-Roman and Freestyle Wrestling were two of the international wrestling styles performed in the Olympic Games supervised by FILA. These two styles are generally known as Amateur Wrestling.
Greco-Roman Wrestling is the oldest style identified. It is an exact carryover of the ancient Greek and Roman wrestling. In this style, only arms and upper portions of the wrestler’s body are used. “No hitting below the belt!”
In the 1904 Olympics, a second wrestling event was added. This was called “Freestyle Wrestling” or “catch as catch can”. Unlike Greco-Roman wrestling, this enables wrestlers to use their legs for lifting, pushing and tripping as well as for holds on opponents above or below the waist.
Women’s Wrestling
It’s a common notion that “women can’t do what men can do’”. This is plainly false! In the world of modern wrestling, women also participate. Women’s division of Olympic Wrestling highlights women athletes wrestling like men.
Rules in Olympic Wrestling
The two styles of amateur wrestling (Greco-Roman and Freestyle) follow different rules, although in some cases rules might have similarities. In general, players beat their opponents by hitting and locking them until they are knocked down on the ground. Fighting continues until one of them can’t fight any longer.
In Greco-Roman Wrestling, attack on the opponent is limited only to the upper portion of the body including the arms. However, in Freestyle, both of the upper and lower portions of the body can be used. Arms and legs can execute moves for attack.
Athletes
Olympic wrestlers are disciplined athletes. They don’t use props like pro-wrestlers. There isn’t any yelling and no grudge matches. This is plainly a sport of “real wrestling”.
Qualified athletes must be 17 years old and above. They must be sponsored by their national federation to compete for the Olympics. Athletes are assumed to be properly trained and must be equipped with the rules. They must not hold any bad record as a citizen of his country.
Weight Divisions
Like boxing, Olympic Wrestling also has several weight divisions. Each athlete is classified according to his weight. Weighing is done before the game starts. Athletes allowed to participate must be at weight level or below.
The Wrestling Mat
Real Olympic Wrestling is contested over a mat. This mat is circular in shape and 9m in diameter. All international mats have a 1.2-1.5m protection border. Wrestlers are encouraged to stay inside the competition area where there is 1m passivity zone on the inner edge of the circle. Competition area is represented with a red band.
Officials
Three officials rule a match, a referee, a chairman and a judge. Officials can’t work on a match with athletes of their own country. They have the authority to award points and declare the winner.
The Match
Pinning the opponent is the main objective. The match ends when an opponent is locked to the mat ½ of a second. Match runs for 5mins/ period. The first one, who will be able to score 3pts within 5mins, wins.