Considered to be the oldest sport in the world, Wrestling appears in five thousand-year-old Egyptian art, and was also popular among the people of Greece, Assyria, Babylonia, India, China and Japan. When the Ancient Olympic Games began in 776 B.C., Wrestling was one of the sports included, becoming the most important one in the following years.
At the first Modern Olympic Games of 1896, Wrestling, once again, played a leading role. Greco-Roman Wrestling was the first type of Wrestling contested. In 1904, a new event called freestyle was introduced.
Currently, there are three Wrestling events included in the Olympics: Greco-Roman, freestyle and women’s Wrestling. The combats are divided into weight classes (seven in Greco-Roman, seven in freestyle and four in women’s) and consist of three rounds of two minutes each.
