Wrestling (Olympic sport since 1896)

  About

   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

   About

   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, wrestlers also use their legs and may hold opponents above or below the waist. The Olympic freestyle medallists in 1996 represented 17 different countries, 15 in Sydney and 17 in Athens.

   Competition

   At the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, there were seven events in men's freestyle. For the first time ever, women participated in four. A total of 344 athletes competed in the three disciplines of this sport, freestyle, Greco-Roman and women's wrestling.

   List of events

   -- - 55kg Men

   -- 55 - 60kg Men

   -- 60 - 66kg Men

   -- 66 - 74kg Men

   -- 74 - 84kg Men

   -- 84 - 96kg Men

   -- 96 -120kg Men

   -- - 48kg Women

   -- 48 - 55kg Women

   -- 55 - 63kg Women

   -- 63 - 72kg Women

Wrestling Greco-Roman

   About

   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, wrestlers also use their legs and may hold opponents above or below the waist. The Olympic Greco-Roman medallists in 1996 represented 16 different countries, with this figure growing to 15 in Sydney and 16 in Athens.

   Competition

   At the Olympic Games in Athens 2004 there were seven events (weight classes) in men's Greco-Roman. A total of 344 athletes competed in the three disciplines of this sport, freestyle, Greco-Roman and women's wrestling.

   List of events

   -- - 55kg Men

   -- 55 - 60kg Men

   -- 60 - 66kg Men

   -- 66 - 74kg Men

   -- 74 - 84kg Men

   -- 84 - 96kg Men

   -- 96 - 120kg Men