Greco-Roman wrestling

This article is about Greco-Roman Wrestling. For this style of wrestling practiced in American high schools, see scholastic wrestling. For the style practiced in American colleges, see collegiate wrestling.
Greco-Roman wrestling
A Greco-Roman wrestling match at the 2004 U.S. National Wrestling Championships in Las Vegas
Also known asLutte Gréco-Romaine
FocusWrestling, Grappling
Hardnessfull-contact
CreatorJean Exbrayat[1]
Famous practitionersnotable practitioners
Olympic sportSince 1896
Official websitehttps://uww.org

Greco-Roman (American English), Graeco-Roman (British English), or classic wrestling (Euro-English)[2] is a style of wrestling that is practiced worldwide. Greco-Roman wrestling was included in the first modern Olympic Games in 1896 and has been in every edition of the summer Olympics held since 1904.[3] This style of wrestling forbids holds below the waist, which is the main feature that differentiates it from freestyle wrestling (the other form of wrestling contested at the Olympics). This restriction results in an emphasis on throws, because a wrestler cannot use trips to bring an opponent to the ground or hook/grab the opponent's leg to avoid being thrown.

Greco-Roman wrestling is one of several forms of amateur competitive wrestling practiced internationally. The other wrestling disciplines sanctioned by United World Wrestling are: men's freestyle wrestling, women's freestyle wrestling, grappling (submission wrestling), pankration, Alysh (belt wrestling), Pahlavani wrestling, and beach wrestling.[4]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference UWW101 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ History of Wrestling from the United World Wrestling Official Web-site.
  3. ^ FILA Wrestling History of Greco-Roman Wrestling Archived 2011-07-11 at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ "Disciplines". UWW. Retrieved 23 September 2020.