In Switzerland, a popular style is ”schwingen” where special pants are used, with a strong belt that is gripped at the start of the contest. The Cornwall-and-Devon style starts from the upright position and ground wrestling is prohibited. In the Cumberland style, if the starting hold is lost, or if any part of the body except the feet touches the ground, the contestant loses. Great Britain developed styles referred to by the parts of the country in which they originated: Cumberland, Westmoreland, Cornwall and Lancashire. In the Soviet Union, for example, it was a practice to organize spectacular championships and exhibitions of folk-lore wrestling, such as ”tchidaoba” from Georgia, ”kokh” from Armenia, ”gulech” from Azerbaidjan, ”kurach” from Uzbekistan, ”kurek” from Kazakhstan, et al. More than 160 traditional or ”folk-lore” variants are recognized by the International Amateur Wrestling Federation. Wrestling clearly has no single point of origin. George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and seven other presidents of the United States were acknowledged as skilled wrestlers. In both North and South America, Indians included wrestling in their sport activities long before Christopher Columbus set foot in the New World. Henry challenged Francis and reportedly was thrown by him. In 1520, at the Field of Cloth-of-Gold, Henry VIII of England and Francis I of France were provoked by strong feelings while watching their countrymen compete. In Europe, during the Middle Ages, wrestling was considered a knightly skill. Two distinctive styles emerged in Japan, sumo and judo, and both remain immensely popular today. Boyd has stated that the Kingdom of Japan was wagered on the outcome of a wrestling match in 858 A.D. Wrestling also has been popular in the Orient for at least 20 centuries. No hold on or with the legs is permitted, nor is tripping allowed. The style was completely free, with no holds barred on any part of the person or garments of the opponent.ĭuring the Napoleonic period, the French developed a style which today is identified as Greco-Roman. It was in this era that the ”catch-as-catch-can” style - forerunner of modern freestyle - developed. With the expansion of the Roman Empire, the contests spread across Europe. The greatest popularity of the Olympic Games was during the period of the ”five good emperors” in Rome, around 125 A.D. His real name was Aristocles, but because of his success, he was given the name Plato, meaning ”broad shoulders.” One of the most famous of the Greek wrestlers was the philosopher, Plato, who won many prizes for wrestling as a young man. Wrestling was the most popular event in the ancient Greek Games, and lists of Olympic wrestling winners have been recorded since 708 B.C. Zeus was victorious, and Olympic festivals dating from the Eighth Century B.C. ![]() The poet Pindar describes how the gods Zeus and Cronus wrestled for possession of the universe along the river Alpheus at Olympia. Wrestling matches were described by the Greek poet Homer, and wrestling became the final and decisive event of the pentathlon, the five-fold contest of the Greek public games. In fact, the maneuvers depicted are more closely related to the present-day sport than are those of such modern variants as sumo, kokh, glima, et al. ![]() Hundreds of drawings there demonstrate clearly that most contemporary wrestling holds were performed in ancient Egypt. No archaeological excavation or historical document has depicted wrestling so completely and so technically correct as have drawings in the temple-tombs of Beni Hasan in middle kingdom Egypt. have been found in lavish tombs of kings and other high officials. Wrestling also reached a high stage of development in Egypt, where paintings of wrestlers dating to approximately 2500 B.C. This artifact, dated 2600 B.C., now is housed in the Iraqi national museum. A small bronze statuette of wrestlers, apparently used as a vase, was unearthed in the ruins of Khafaji, 200 miles from Baghdad. Sumerians cast wrestlers in bold relief on stone slabs at least 5,000 years ago, antedating all other artifacts of ancient sport. ![]() Carvings and drawings estimated to be between 15,000 and 20,000 years old, found in caves in southern Europe, illustrate wrestlers in hold and leverage positions. Wrestling, mankind’s oldest and most basic form of recreational combat, traces its origins back to the dawn of civilization.
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