The city of Los Angeles hosts the games of the X Olympiad in what today is known as Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Americans Robert Pearce (56 kg), Jack van Bebber (72 kg) and Peter Mehringer (87 kg) won gold medals...
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The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) crowns its first team champion in Oklahoma State University. Head Coach Ed Gallager would go on to lead OSU to 11 team championships.
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The Fédération Internationale des Luttes Associées was founded and initially governed both wrestling and weightlifting. Today, known as FILA, it serves as the international governing body of Freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling.
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The first modern Olympic Games held in Athens, Greece featured wrestling with rules similar to modern Greco-Roman. With no weight classifications for the competition there would be just one winner among competitors of all sizes.
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Napoleonic Soldier Jean Exbraya created a wrestling rule that prohibited holds below the waist to distinguish it from other forms of hand-to-hand combat. It would later become known as Greco-Roman Wrestling as a nod to the ancient values of the...
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It is widely believed that Japanese Emperor Seiwa secured the throne after victory in a wrestling bout. It is during this time that Sumo and Judo emerge as two distinct styles of combat.
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Wrestling was first recorded as an event at the Ancient Olympic Games in the 18th Olympiad. Greeks believed strongly in the concept of “agon” (competition) and the ultimate goal was to be the best. It was therefore considered the greatest...
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Paintings of wrestling holds and techniques were found in the lavish tombs of Egyptian Kings and high officials. These paintings depict holds that are still executed today.
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One of the world’s oldest known artifacts of sport, a vase made of small bronze statuettes of wrestlers was found in the ruins of Khafaji, 200 miles from Baghdad.
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