Freestyle wrestling

Freestyle wrestling is a highly technical style of amateur competitive wrestling. It is one of the two main wrestling styles featured in the Olympic Games. The other style is known as Greco-Roman wrestling.

Unlike Greco-Roman, freestyle allows athletes to use their legs for both offense and defense. This includes attacking an opponent's legs or using one's own legs to control a match. The primary objective is to throw an opponent or achieve a pin. A pin, also called a fall, occurs when a wrestler holds their opponent's shoulder to the mat. This action results in an immediate victory for the wrestler.

Matches take place on a specialized, thick rubber mat designed for shock absorption. This material is essential for athlete safety during high-impact throws. The main wrestling area is a circle with a nine-meter diameter. Surrounding this area is a protective border. Inside the nine-meter circle, there is a red band one meter wide. This is called the red zone or the passivity zone. Officials use this zone to identify when a wrestler is being passive.

Within the red zone lies the central wrestling area, which is seven meters in diameter. At the very center is a one-meter circle divided by a red line. The corners of the mat are marked with colors like red and blue, or red and green, to identify the wrestlers.

Modern freestyle wrestling evolved from a style called catch-as-catch-can. This style originated in Great Britain and the United States. In the 19th century, catch-as-catch-can was very popular at fairs and festivals. Various regional versions existed, such as the Lancashire style in Great Britain. There was also a Scottish variant and an Irish collar-and-elbow style. Irish immigrants brought their style to the United States, where it became widespread.

Even several U.S. presidents, including George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, practiced catch-as-catch-can.

Freestyle wrestling first appeared as an Olympic sport during the 1904 Summer Olympics in St. Louis. At those games, all 40 participating wrestlers were from the United States. The 1904 Olympics introduced an important innovation by using seven different weight classes. These classes helped organize competition by body mass. Since 1921, the organization known as United World Wrestling (UWW) has managed the sport. UWW is headquartered near Lausanne, Switzerland. They establish the official "Rules of the Game" for international tournaments.

To ensure fair competition, wrestlers are divided into specific age and weight categories. For men, there are six main age categories: schoolboys, cadets, novice, juvenile, juniors, and seniors. There is also a "Veterans" category for men aged 35 and older. Women compete in four international age categories: schoolgirls, cadets, juniors, and seniors.

Each category has a set number of weight classes. For example, schoolboys and cadets compete in ten weight classes. Juniors compete in eight, and seniors compete in seven. Wrestlers must weigh in before a match and may only compete in their assigned weight class.

Historically, wrestling matches were much longer than they are today. In the 19th century, some Greco-Roman bouts lasted eight to nine hours. Scoring has also changed significantly over time. For many years, there was no scoring system to decide a match if no pin occurred. In 1941, coach Art Griffith introduced a point system at Oklahoma State University. This system eventually influenced international rules. By the 1960s, three judges would decide matches using secret colored paddles. Later, leaders like Dr. Albert de Ferrari advocated for visible scoring and the "controlled fall" rule.

Freestyle wrestling remains a major global sport with intense international competition. Nations such as Iran, the United States, Japan, and Bulgaria have shown great strength. In 2013, the sport faced a major crisis when the International Olympic Committee (IOC) voted to remove it from the 2020 Games. In response, a group called 2020 vision led a massive campaign to save the sport. They used social media to gather support and aimed for over two million signatures. The IOC reversed its decision later that year. Wrestling was reinstated for the 2020 and 2024 Olympics as a probationary sport.