Freestyle wrestling in facts of history

In essence, freestyle wrestling is a form of martial arts, where two athletes, using various types of techniques such as throws, grippers, footsteps, coups, sweeps, etc., tend to put each other in a "shoulder-blade" position. According to the rules, the match can last 5 minutes or until one of the candidates receives 3 points, or to a clean victory. If the time was not enough to identify the winner, then an additional time of 3 minutes is assigned.

It is difficult to say exactly when there was a free-style wrestling as a kind of martial arts, but what later Greco-Roman, then this is for sure. Moreover, it is known that the birthplace of this sport is Foggy Albion, and only later this martial art was exported to America, where, in fact, it got its development and wide popularity.

Initially, at the end of the 19th century - at the very beginning of the 20th, the free-style wrestling, in fact, represented a certain show, a tough, sometimes cruel, but a spectacle. Actually, what's surprising - this is America with its wrestling and the like. At that time, the technique of freestyle wrestling included a lot of painful techniques, including the twisting of the joints and the protrusion of the joints. Naturally, among professionals, however, as well as in wrestling, an important role was played precisely by simulating atrocities for the sake of entertainment and popularity. Nevertheless, it was in America that this kind of struggle gained wide popularity.

As a result, free competition was presented for the first time at the Olympic Games in this country in 1904. Moreover, athletes from the United States participated in competitions, it should be noted that there were 38 of them. Ever since, and to this day, athletes from the United States of America are invariably part of the leading group in any international competition, be it the world freestyle wrestling championship or the Olympic Games. As evidence of the triumph of American wrestlers is the fact that during the period from 1904 to 1996 at the Olympics they were able to obtain 99 medals, naturally, much more than any other state.

In our country, free-style wrestling as a form of martial arts appeared even later, as is known, at the beginning of the 20th century the classical struggle was actively promoted in the Soviet Union. At the same time it was the classics who made up the first backbone of freestyle wrestlers, turning into this kind, most often, because of considerable competition in the weight categories of classical wrestling. It is interesting that representatives of Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan began to actively participate in this sport. It was in those then still republics of the former USSR that the national martial arts were in many ways similar to international rules. Essential role in the development of free-style wrestling as an Olympic discipline, as a result of great success in the international arena, was directly Stalin, who was himself a "fan" of the struggle as a whole.

As a consequence of such a dense and, perhaps, categorical guardianship, there was a triumphal, no less - no more, performance of the USSR national wrestling team at its first Olympic Games in 1952, when the team took 1st place in the overall standings, and Arsen Mekokishvili - nugget From the Kakhetian collective farm, became the Olympic champion.

The most famous and titled sportsman in freestyle wrestling was and remains a three-time Olympian, seven-time world champion Alexander Medved. In addition to him, two gold medals of the Olympic Games were given to Ivan Yarygin, Orslan Andiyev, Levan Tediashvili.

In addition to the above-mentioned countries-representatives of the former Soviet Union, the free-style wrestling won widespread recognition in such a country as Iran, where it became a national sport.