Wrestling: Grappling with foreign bodies

Wrestling is one of the most ancient sports in the world. Theseus, son of the King of Athens, drew up the first recorded rules for competitive wrestling around 900BC.

Wrestling made its appearance at the ancient Olympic Games, circa 704BC.

Cave drawings of wrestlers have been discovered from the Sumero-Akkadian civilization dating back 3000 BC. Even wall paintings depicting wrestling from ancient Egyptian civilizations, circa 2400 BC have been unearthed.

Today, internationally, four main forms of amateur competitive wrestling are practiced, including Greco-Roman wrestling, freestyle wrestling, judo wrestling and sombo wrestling.

In the Freestyle, holds are unlimited, provided they are not dangerous, and can be applied to any part of the body. Greco-Roman wrestling limits holds only to the upper body.

Wrestling (Greco-Roman event) was included in the inaugural Modern Olympics in 1896. The Freestyle event was introduced in 1904 and in 1908 both styles were included. The International Federation of Associated Wrestling Styles (FILA) was founded in 1912.

Russian domination

Today Russia dominates wrestling, especially in the Greco-Roman style. The United States is close to the Russians in Freestyle. Some top international wrestlers have also emerged from Iran, Turkey and Mongolia.

During the 1948 London Olympics, Turkey won 11 medals, which included six gold medals.

One of the outstanding wrestlers of the 1950's and 60's was Hungarian Imre Poyak. He won four Olympic gold medals between 1952 and 1964.

Since 1972, wrestling has had 10 classes in both freestyle and Greco-Roman, but during the Sydney Games only eight classes were contested in each style. The weights have also changed slightly. A maximum weight limit of 130 kg was imposed for the first time at the 1988 Seoul Games.

Among the big names of modern era wrestling is Alexander Karelin, who dominated the 130-kg category in the Greco-Roman style. Karelin had been unbeaten for 13 years and had won three gold medals. At the Olympic Games in Athens, there will be seven events in men's freestyle. For the first time ever, women will participate in four freestyle events. There will be a maximum of 344 athletes participating in the sport.

The 1970's saw the emergence of countries like India and Pakistan as challengers to leading European nations. In the 2000 Sim Kwon-ho of South Korea won the Greco-Roman event in the 54 kg category, while the 58 kg category gold was bagged by Armen Nazarian (Bulgaria) and Hamza of Turkey won the 85kg gold.

In the freestyle event, the 54 kg gold went to Namig Abdullayev of Azerbaijan and the 58 kg gold to Alireza Dabir of Iran. Mourad Oumakhanov of Russia bagged the 63 kg gold, and the 69 kg title went to Daniel Igali of Canada.

Rules

In Greco-Roman, wrestlers use arms and upper bodies to attack. In freestyle, wrestlers can hold their opponents above and below the waist and can trip them.


CATEGORIES

Women
48 kg, 55 kg, 63 kg , 72 kg

Men
55 kg , 60 kg, 66 kg, 74 kg, 84 kg, 96 kg, 120 kg

STARS TO WATCH

Women Freestyle
Irina Melnik, Ukraine
Chiharu Icho, Japan
Patricia Miranda, US
Saori Yoshida, Japan Na-Lae Lee, S. Korea Natalia Golts, Russia

Men Freestyle
Lazaro Rivas, Cuba
Dae-Won Im, S.Korea
Hasan Rangraz, Iran
Roberto Monzon, Cuba JimGruenwald, US
Kim In-Sub, S.Korea
Armen Vardanyan, Ukraine
Manuchari Kvirkvelia, Georgia
Armen Nazarian, Bulgaria