Wrestling: everything you need to know about the sport

Wrestling is one of the oldest disciplines in the Olympic Games. Indeed, because of its history, Greco-Roman wrestling has been on the program since the “renovation” of the Olympic Games in 1896 in Athens. She joined the Olympic program permanently a little later, in 1908, for the London Olympic Games.

Freestyle wrestling made its debut a few years later. It was in 1920, during the Olympic Games in Antwerp, that it was definitively included in the Olympic program...after a small appearance during the Olympic Games in Saint-Louis in 1904. A century later, during the Olympic Games in In Athens, women are (finally) allowed to compete, but only in freestyle wrestling.

The German Wilfried Dietrich is the wrestler who has won the most medals: 5 but “only” 1 in gold (2 in silver, 2 in bronze). The Cuban Mijaín López can be considered the greatest wrestler of the Olympic Games since he won four titles in Greco-Roman wrestling (at super heavyweight) between 2008 and 2020. The Russian Aleksandr Karelin is also one of the legends of the discipline (4 medals including 3 gold in the super-heavyweight category in Greco-Roman).

Among women, the Japanese Kaori Icho is undoubtedly the greatest wrestler in the history of the Olympic Games: she is undefeated with four gold medals won between 2004 and 2016 in freestyle wrestling (-63kg). Several countries dominate wrestling: the United States (151 medals including 60 gold), Russia (59 medals including 30 gold, excluding the Soviet Union), Japan (76 medals including 37 gold) and Turkey (65 medals including 29 gold), Sweden (86 medals including 28 gold) and Iran (83 medals including 26 gold).

There are two forms of wrestling: Greco-Roman wrestling and freestyle wrestling. In these two disciplines, the objective remains the same. To win, the competitors, who compete on a “circular” surface during two 3-minute rounds, must press their opponent’s shoulder blades to the ground. They can also win by totaling the greatest number of points thanks to standing and ground reversal techniques. All, with bare hands and without grabbing their opponent's jersey. In Greco-Roman wrestling, holds are limited to the upper part of the body while freestyle wrestling also allows attacks to the lower part of the body. As with all combat sports, athletes are grouped based on their weight.

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The Greco-Roman wrestling and freestyle wrestling events will take place respectively between August 5 and 8 and between August 5 and 11 at the Arena Champ de Mars.

For Greco-Roman wrestling, the finals will take place on August 6 for -60 kg and -130 kg, August 7 for -77 kg and -97 kg, and August 8 for -67 kg and -87 kg.

As for freestyle wrestling, the men's finals are held at the end of the week with the -57 kg and -86 kg on August 9, the -74 kg and -125 kg on August 10 and the -65 kg and - 97 kg on August 11; the women's finals are a little more spread out in time with the -68 kg on August 6, the -50 kg on August 7, the -53 kg on August 8, the -57 kg on August 9, the -62 kg on August 10 and -76 kg on August 11.