The History of Wrestling

So I have pretty much covered the basics of wrestling as far as the physical and some of the mental aspects go. I would now like to give a little historical background of wrestling. The first traces of the progression of wrestling date back to the Sumerians, which were around some 5000 years ago. There have also been tombs discovered back from ancient Egypt that had drawings of people wrestling. It was the Greeks, however, that transformed wrestling into a science. Greeks used wrestling as the main form of training for young men. They would wrestle naked and coat themselves with a type of olive oil. They would then place a layer of thin sand on their body to protect them from the elements. It helped lessen the effects that the sun and cold weather would have on them. The first person that would throw his opponent or take him down was proclaimed the winner. Eventually wrestling became the final event of the Pentathlon in the Ancient Olympic Games. The Romans tried to bring back wrestling in an attempt to restore the Greek Games. There were many attempts to bring back the Olympic Games, but this wasn’t successfully completed until 1896. In 1894 the first Olympic Congress met and decided that wrestling would be one of the ten sports that would be included in the Olympic Games. Professional wrestling in France started around 1830. They formed traveling troupes that went around France showcasing their talent. The French influenced began to spread to other places such as the Austrian Hungarian Empire, Italy, Denmark, and to Russia. This style of wrestling gradually became what is known today as Greco-Roman. Slight variations of this style of wrestling branched off and transformed into some of the modern styles seen today. Freestyle wrestling was first introduced during the St. Louis Games and was only disputed by American wrestlers. The Northern European countries maintained during many years the monopoly of Greco-Roman wrestling, whereas freestyle wrestling was largely controlled by the English and the Americans. Wrestling has been surprisingly understanding with this progressive day of age. Around one hundred years after the introduction of freestyle wrestling in the Olympic program, a new era of wrestling was acknowledged. Female wrestling became recognized as an Olympic discipline in the Athens Games of 2004. It is impressive to see how far wrestling has come.         (I got most of this information from the website unitedworldwrestling.org)