Wrestling - Greco-Roman

Competition at Rio

The wrestling competition at Rio will consist of two disciplines of Freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling be held from Sunday 14 August 2016 to Sunday 21^st August 2016 at the Carioca Arena 2 in the Barra Olympic Park.

Men and women will compete in Wrestling Freestyle whilst only men compete in the Greco-Roman discipline. The competition will consist of 18 medal events summarized below:

 

Demystifying the Event

Greco VS Freestyle

In Greco-Roman wrestling, the wrestlers use only their arms and upper bodies to attack, and can only hold those same parts of their opponents. As the name suggests, freestyle is a much more open form in which wrestlers also use their legs and may hold opponents above or below the waist.

Duration and Scoring

The contests will consist of two (2) periods of three (3) minutes with a 30-second break for both men and women (actual time), in accordance with UWW rules.

The winner is declared by the addition of points at the end of the regular time in both periods. Evident technical superiority of eight (8) points for Men’s Greco-Roman Wrestling and 10 points for Men’s and Women’s Freestyle Wrestling automatically leads to victory.

In the event of a fall, the match will be stopped automatically, whatever the period.

In Freestyle Wrestling, if after two (2) minutes in the first (1st) period no wrestler has scored, the referee must obligatorily designate the passive wrestler.

In Greco-Roman Wrestling, in the case where a bout ends 0-0 the victory goes to the wrestler who was deemed the most active last.

Wrestling Terminology

Action - A referee''s command to the wrestlers to begin wrestling.

Ankle lace - A hold in which a wrestler traps his opponents by the ankles with his arms and exposes his back to the mat.

Arm control - Controlling the opponent''s arms.

Arm throw - A move in which a wrestler throws his opponent over his shoulder by holding the opponent''s arm.

Timeline

1896 – Modern Olympics founded with Greco-Roman Wrestling one of the nine sports to features on the programme.

1904 – Freestyle Wrestling made its first appearance at the Olympic Games.

2004 – Women’s Wrestling featured for the first time.

2016 – United World Wrestling (UWW) has cut the men’s divisions from seven to six to enable two more women’s weight classes.