Wrestling

Athens, 23 August 2004, Games of the XXVIII Olympiad. Women's -48kg freestyle wrestling: Irini MERLENI of Ukraine lifts Patricia MIRANDA (blue) of the United States during the semifinal at Ano Liossia Olympic Hall.

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.

奥运会摔跤发展史

        奥运会古典式摔跤发展史

　　在古代奥运会中断1500年后的1896年，摔跤找回了在奥运会中的位置。现代奥运会的组织者在寻找与古代奥运会有直接联系的体育项目的过程中，自然而然地选中了摔跤运动。因为它曾在古代风靡世界大多数地方，从希腊、巴比伦到印度、中国和日本。所以他们原封不动地模仿古希腊和古罗马摔跤手的遗风，重现了“古典式摔跤”。

　　在古典式摔跤比赛中，摔跤选手只能用双臂和上半身去攻击对手，也只能扭抱对手的这些部位。1896年在雅典举行的第1届现代奥运会上，就设立了古典式摔跤项目。

　　奥运会自由式摔跤发展史

　　18世纪末，另一种更加自由的摔跤形式风靡了整个英国和美国。这种自由式摔跤，被称为“想抓哪就抓哪”的运动，而且在这两个国家里成为了人们在集市和节日里常见的节目，甚至成为流行的娱乐职业。

　　1904年，在圣路易第3届奥运会上，增添了一项摔跤项目，名为“自由式摔跤”。自由式摔跤允许选手用腿来压迫、挑起和绊倒对手，也允许扭抱对手腰部以上或腰部以下的部位。在最初的比赛中，选手们不分级别都在一起参加比赛，这样体重较重的就占有一定优势，比赛中经常出现大块头轻松战胜体重较轻的选手的场面，比赛呈现一边倒的局面。此后，摔跤比赛开始按体重分级别进行。

　　女子摔跤的发展

　　直到2004年希腊雅典奥运会，女子摔跤才被列为正式比赛项目。为了女子摔跤能进入奥运会，国际业余摔跤联合会（FILA）做了大量的工作。最主要的手段是，减少男子摔跤的级别。最早古典式摔跤、自由式摔跤各有10个级别，后来各压缩成8个级别，后来又各自减少一个级别，这样各项就只有7个级别了，这才使得女子摔跤能够进入奥运大家庭。奥运会女子摔跤只设立4个级别的比赛。