Wrestling played a pivotal role in the ancient Olympic Games, where it was first contested in 708 BCE. Wrestling matches were organized as its own event in two disciplines ‘upright’ and ‘ground’ wrestling and as part of the pentathlon.
Wrestling remains one of the oldest sports in human history, if not the foremost and oldest. Multiple sculptures, reliefs and cave drawings, some of which dates back to around 15,000 years, show wrestlers using various holds that are still used in the present-day sport.
In the modern day, wrestling consists of two separate disciplines: Greco-Roman wrestling, a wrestling style based on the ancient sport, and freestyle wrestling, a more modern format.
Olympic History
Greco-Roman wrestling has been a blue-ribbon Olympic event ever since the first modern Games were held in Athens in 1896. It became a permanent fixture on the Olympic programme in 1908. Freestyle wrestling made its debut a few years later at the St. Louis 1904 Games and has featured on the Olympic programme ever since the Antwerp 1920 Games. Women’s freestyle wrestling has been on the Olympic programme since the Athens 2004 Games.
Athletes representing the Soviet Union have won 116 medals at the Games, including 62 golds. The USA athletes have secured 142 medals that include 57 gold medals. Japan is the most successful nation in women’s wrestling at the Olympic Games, securing 15 out of a possible 24 gold medals.
Brief Overview
There are two Olympic wrestling disciplines, each with its own rules. In Greco-Roman wrestling, a competitor can only use his arms and upper body to attack his opponent above the waist. Freestyle wrestling is a much more open form of the sport in which competitors also use their legs and can hold opponents above or below the waist.
However, the objective is the same in both styles. Contested on a circular combat area, a bout consists of two three-minute periods. Wrestlers must either use their bare hands to pin their opponent’s two shoulders down to the mat without holding them by their singlet, which is called a ‘fall’ or, if no fall is secured during the bout, have the most points at the end of regulation time by performing take-down and reversal moves.
Wrestlers to Watch at Paris 2024
While the Cuban star Mijain Lopez Nunez, who became the second wrestler in history to win four Olympic wrestling gold medals at the age of 38 in Tokyo, hasn’t clarified whether he will compete in Paris, many of the Tokyo 2020 finalists will be aiming for gold at the Games.
After his dramatic late comeback against Iranian Hassan Yazdani in the men’s freestyle 86kg final, Team USA’s David Taylor will attempt to defend his title. However, the silver medallist won’t be easy to defeat, as his record as a three-time world champion and Rio 2016 gold medallist in the event testifies.
The Rio 2016 gold medallist Kyle Snyder will also be a one to watch. The American lost in the final of the freestyle 97kg at Tokyo and will be hoping to regain the title at Paris 2024.
Since the women’s competitions were introduced to the Olympic programme in 2004, Japanese athletes have dominated. At Tokyo 2020, they won four of the six golds on offer, including those won by the Kawai Yukako and Risako sisters in 62kg and 57kg respectively. The double Olympic champion Risako gave birth to her first baby in May 2022 and, if she returns to the mat, will once again be a favourite at Paris 2024.
Tamyra Mensah-Stock, the first-ever black female to win Olympic gold medal in wrestling, will also be a strong contender in the women’s 68kg category.
The Tokyo wrestling competitions saw two medallists from countries that had never won any medals in the sport. One was Nigeria’s Blessing Oborududu, who won silver in the women’s 68kg, and the other was San Marino’s Myles Nazem Amine, who won bronze in the men’s 86kg. Both athletes will be hoping for more of the same at Paris 2024.
Wrap-up from the Tokyo 2020
From David Taylor’s late strike for gold to Abdulrashid Sadulaev winning the battle of Olympic champions, take a look at wrestling’s most memorable moments at Tokyo 2020, a medal recap, and what we have to look forward to at Paris 2024.
Action from the wrestling mats at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 lived up to expectations with blockbuster finals and the crowning of champions, most of whom are first-time medallists. Among the highlights were David Taylor’s victory over Hassan Yazdani and Abdulrashid Sadulaev’s triumph over Kyle Snyder in the titanic battle of the Olympic champions.
Japanese female wrestlers were outstanding capturing four golds, with sisters KAWAI Yukako and KAWAI Risako winning titles 24 hours apart. We can’t forget Gable Stevenson’s last-gasp victory.
Blessing Oborududu will go down in history as the first African woman to reach the Olympic finals and grab a memorable silver for Nigeria. Below, we take a look back at the most memorable moments, a recap of the medal winners from the 26 nations that won a wrestling medal, and who to look out for at the Paris 2024 Games.
Top Moments at Tokyo 2020
David Taylor, freestyle 86kg: Team USA’s David Taylor proved why he is called the ‘magic man’ winning one of the greatest showdowns in Olympic wrestling history. Taylor’s late take-down saw him triumph 4-3 over Iranian superstar Hassan Yazdani 4-3. It was a heart-breaking loss for Yazdani who had hoped to become the first double Olympic champion in his nation’s history.
That victory meant the American has won all his encounters against the Rio 2016 champion at 74kg and goes down in history as one of the stars of his sport. That performance, alongside Gable Steveson’s shock victory in the 125kg and Tamyra’s Mensah-Stock’s gold in the women’s 68kg, helped the U.S. record its best-ever showing on the Olympics mat since 1984 when they clinched four gold medals.
Gable Steveson of the USA who won the gold in the men’s 125kg category
Abdulrashid Sadulaev, freestyle 97kg: The gold medal bout pitting Kyle Snyder versus Abdulrashid Sadulaev was a nail-biting clash of champions. Meeting for the third time since they were both crowned champions at Rio 2016 in different weight categories, Sadulaev of ROC overcame the American 6-3 for his second Olympic title.”Unbelievable, awesome,” Sadulaev, a four-time world champion said. The win further extended Sadulaev’s unbeaten record over Snyder. His last defeat to the American was at the 2017 World Championships when they met for the first time and Snyder won.
Kawai Risako: She became the third double Olympic champion in women’s wrestling history. Kawai, who had knocked out two Olympic champions en-route to the final, took the 57kg crown with a dominating 5-0 victory in the gold medal contest over Iryna Kurachkina of Belarus. Compatriots ICHO Kaori with a record four and YOSHIDA Saori (three) are the only other Japanese women wrestlers with more than two gold medals.
The victory was even more special for Risako as her younger sister Yukako had won the 62kg in her first Olympic appearance the previous day.The other thrilling home wins saw world champions OTOGURO Takuto and SUSAKI Yui clinch Olympic titles and boost Japan’s medal haul at their debut Games.
Mijain Lopez: Cuban superstar Mijain Lopez entered the history book as he became just the second wrestler in history to win a fourth Olympic gold medal. The ‘Giant of Herradura’ easily swept past Georgian fighter Iakobi Kajaia in the Greco-Roman 130kg final to join Japanese Icho as the only wrestlers with four Olympic titles.The 38-year-old took gold medals in Beijing 2008 and London 2012 in the 120 kg weight class and defended his 130 kg title from Rio de Janeiro.
Another star performer in the Greco-Roman wrestling was Ukrainian lawmaker Zhan Beleniuk, who became his country’s first gold medallist in Tokyo after victory over Hungary’s Viktor Lorincz in 87kg. Beleniuk, a silver medallist at Rio 2016, is his nation’s first Greco-Roman wrestler to win multiple medals at the Olympic Games.
Blessing Oborududu: She became the first-ever Nigerian to make an Olympic final. The three-time Olympian defeated Mongolian Battsetseg Soronzonbold 7-2 in the semi-finals of the women’s 68kg class. She lost to Tamyra Mensah-Stock of the USA in the final, but the silver made her Nigeria’s first Olympic wrestling medalist.“We have been working for the past two Olympics,” said the Oborududu, 32.“We were not able to get any medal, but we keep working. We knew that one day we will get it.”
Myles Amine earned San Marino’s first-ever Olympic wrestling medal with a hard-fought 4-2 win over 2019 world silver medalist Deepak Punia of India at freestyle 86kg.Amine was also the first wrestler to ever qualify San Marino for the Olympics.
Tamyra Mensah-Stock: The diversity of the medallists stood out in Tokyo and this was best exemplified by U.S. wrestler Tamyra Mensah-Stock. Her win in the 68kg made her the second ever American female wresting Olympic champion and the first Black woman on top of the podium.
Her Instagram following went from 13k to 125k following her win which she believes will break new ground for the sport. “These young women are going to see themselves in a number of ways and look up and go, ‘I can do that, I can see myself’. Look at this natural hair. Come on. Man, I’ve got my puffballs out, so they can know that they can do it too,” Mensah-Stock said.
Nethmi Ahinsa Fernando
Then 18-year Nethmi Ahinsa Fernando, made headlines in Sri Lanka after becoming the youngest Sri Lankan athlete ever to win a Commonwealth medal, and the first in wrestling. She hails from an underprivileged village called Welpalla and was born on June 17, 2004,
In an Olympics.com exclusive, the Sri Lankan Nethmi Ahinsa Fernando revealed how freestyle wrestling made her healthy, why she had to train in a temple, and how she won a Commonwealth Games bronze medal after four years of training on sawdust and sand.
She never dreamed that she would one day win a freestyle wrestling medal in an international competition. But four years after first trying the sport, that’s exactly what happened when she secured an historic bronze medal in the women’s 57kg division at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, United Kingdom.
But the accolades on her resume don’t fully reflect the real triumph of her achievement. While many of her competitors benefitted from well-funded programmes with modern equipment, she honed her skills on sawdust and straw mats at her coach’s house and on the beaches of west Sri Lanka.
“It was a huge achievement, because we succeeded without access to elite training facilities or foreign training camps. I am very happy to bring honour to my country,” she told Olympics.com at the 2023 World Wrestling Championships in Belgrade, Serbia.
Coached by Suranga Kumara, she has maintained top-10 ranking at the World Championship 2021 (Juniors), World Championship 2022 (Under 23), Asian Championships 2023 and is a contender from Sri Lanka to qualify for the forthcoming Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
Olympics Qualification System
At Paris 2024, some 288 wrestlers will be in action, which is the same number as Tokyo 2020. At Tokyo 2020, wrestling provided excitement and unforgettable drama, with highlights that included American David Taylor’s great comeback in the final seconds to win his first gold medal, Cuban superstar Mijain Lopez Nunez’s historic fourth Olympic title, and the first-ever Olympic Wrestling medals for Nigeria and San Marino.
In total, 288 athletes will compete in the Paris 2024 wrestling competition: 192 men and 96 women – exactly the same amount as the previous Games. No spots will be allocated to the host country for wrestling and quota places are allocated to National Olympic Committees (NOCs) with a maximum number of 18 (one per event).
Pathway to Paris 2024
All of the 288 quotas will be allocated during three phases.
Phase 1 – 2023 Senior World Championships: On the basis of five quotas for each of the 18 Olympic weight categories, a total of 90 quotas have already been allocated at the 2023 Senior World Championships. The four medallists (gold, silver, bronze and bronze) from the 18 categories at this event will each obtain one quota place for their NOC. Besides, a bout between the two losers of the bronze medal matches will take place and the winner will obtain the last quota.
Phase 2 – 2024 Continental Qualification Tournaments: 144 quotas will be defined by the 2024 Continental Qualification Tournaments. Each Continent will organise a specific Olympic Qualification Tournament with the exception of Oceania and Africa that will have a joint Qualification Tournament. The two highest-placed athletes at each Continental Qualification tournament in each of the 18 Olympic weight categories will obtain one quota place each for their NOC.
Phase 3 – 2024 World Qualification: The last 54 quotas will be decided at the 2024 World Qualification Tournament. The two highest-ranked athletes in each of the 18 Olympic weight categories will obtain one quota place each for their NOC. In addition, a bout will be organised between the two third-placed athletes and the winner of that bout will also obtain one quota place for his/her NOC.
Paris 2024 Format and Schedule
The Paris 2024 wrestling competition will take place from August 5 to 11, at the Champ de Mars Arena, which is the same venue as the judo competition. There are two styles of wrestling, Greco-Roman and Freestyle, and a total of 18 events will be held at Paris 2024, which is the same amount as Tokyo 2020.
Women’s Freestyle events: 50kg, 53kg, 57kg, 62kg, 68kg, 76kg; Men’s Greco-Roman events: 60kg, 67kg, 77kg, 87kg, 97kg, 130kg; Men’s Freestyle events: 57kg, 65kg, 74kg, 86kg, 97kg, 125kg.
The competitions feature a direct elimination system. Two bronze medals will be awarded via the repechage process, which wrestlers who lose against the finalists take part in.
Qualification Timelines
The qualification duration commenced on September 16, 2023 and will go on till May 12, 2024. 12-14 April 2024 – Asian Qualifying Tournament; 17 April 2024 – UWW confirms in writing to the NOCs the quota places obtained at the Asian Qualifying Tournament; 28 April 2024 – The NOCs to confirm to UWW the use of the allocated quota places at the Asian Qualifying Tournament; 09-12 May 2024 – World Qualifying Tournament; 15 May 2024 – UWW confirms in writing to NOCs the quota places obtained at the World Qualifying Tournament; 26 May 2024 – The NOCs to confirm to UWW the use of the allocated quota places at the World Qualifying Tournament; The Tripartite Commission to confirm in writing the allocation of Universality Places to the NOCs; June 2024 – UWW to reallocate all unused quota; 8 July 2024 – Paris 2024 Sport Entries deadline.
