Cave pictures dating back to the year 3000 BC attest it: with the exception of athletics, wrestling is recognised as the oldest competitive sport in the history of humankind. Running and fighting are part of human nature. No wonder they were included in the Olympic Movement at the inception of the Ancient Olympics.

Wrestling, whose disciplines are Free Wrestling and Greco-Roman, has been part of the Games since its first edition at Athens 1896 – with the exception of Paris 1900. At its debut in Greece, only Greco-Roman wrestling was contested and it was not divided by weight categories. The champion was German Carl Schumann, leaving two Greeks with silver and bronze medals.

In Greco-Roman wrestling, the Olympic programme only includes men’s wrestling. The top winner throughout history is the Soviet Union, with 34 awards. Sweden comes second, with 20 awards, followed by Finland (19) and Hungary (16). At Beijing 2008, Russia, the heiress of the soviet tradition, won in three categories. Cuba, France and Italy won in one each.

“The sports favourites are the Eastern European nations and the former Soviet Union as well as some Asian countries which will be competing at London 2012. These are the powerful and traditional schools. Wrestling was born in that region. The top nations are Russia, in free wrestling, and Japan, in men’s wrestling”, Roberto Leitão Filho, superintendent of the Brazilian Confederation of Associated Wrestling and an athlete at Seoul 1988 and Barcelona 1992, adds.

With 47 awards, the USA are ahead in men’s free wrestling. The Soviet Union has claimed 28 gold medals and Russia has claimed 13. Other top wrestling nations are Turkey (17) and Japan (16). At Beijing 2008, the Russian wrestlers won in three out of seven categories. Georgia and Uzbekistan, former Soviet republics, each claimed one medal, as well as Turkey and the USA. Wrestling has been contested also among women since Athens 2004 and the Japanese women wrestlers have claimed four out of the eight gold medals awarded so far. The Chinese have claimed two, and Ukrania and Canada have claimed one each.

Rio’s victory increases the number of wrestlers in Brazil

The impact of Rio de Janeiro being elected the host city of the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games has reached Brazilian wrestling lovers. According to Roberto Leitão, the number of full-time wrestling athletes has tripled at the anticipation of competing for their countries in the Games.

“As there have been more participation and professionals in wrestling, the level of the championships has risen. We have managed to improve the standards. The results of Brazilian wrestlers can be noticed locally and worldwide, there might be good surprises in the next editions of the Games”, Leitão says.

“More importantly, today 12-13 year old boys are wrestling and devoting themselves to the sport. When I was an athlete, I used to train in Judo, I did not take lessons, there were not professional wrestling instructors. Today the youth are more enthusiastic, new athletes, referees and managers have been prepared, and the results will be seen in the future”, the former wrestler and trainer of Brazilian athletes in the last two editions of the Olympic Games adds.