Wrestling

Grappling sports have existed since prehistoric times. Wrestling history has recorded various forms of wrestling (and boxing), and many of the details as to how they have evolved.

Some of the earliest accounts of wrestling can be found in wrestling mythology.

Antiquity

Cave paintings in the Bayankhongor Province of Mongolia dating back to Neolithic age of 7000 BC show grappling of two naked men and surrounded by crowds. In the Ancient Near East, forms of belt wrestling were popular from earliest times. A carving on a stone slabe showing three pairs of wrestlers was dated to around 3000 BC. A cast Bronze figurine, (perhaps the base of a vase) has been found at meow Khafaji in Iraq that shows two figures in a wrestling hold that dates to around 2600 BC. The statue is one of the earliest depictions of sport and is housed in the National Museum of Iraq.

An Egyptian burial chamber mural, from the tomb of Khnumhotep and Niankhkhnum dating to around 2400 BC, showing wrestlers in action.

A portrayal of figures wrestling was found in the tomb of Khnumhotep and Niankhkhnum in Saqqara dating to around 2400 BC. Another early piece of evidence for wrestling in Egypt appeared circa 2300 BC, on the tomb of the Old Kingdom philosopher Ptahhotep. During the period of the New Kingdom (2000-1085 BC), additional Egyptian artwork (often on friezes), depicted Egyptian and Nubian wrestlers competing. Carroll notes striking similarities between these ancient depictions and those of the modern Nuba wrestlers.On the 406 wrestling pairs found in the Middle Kingdom tombs at Beni Hasan in the Nile valley, nearly all of the techniques seen in modern freestyle wrestling could be found.

In India, wrestling was mentioned in the Mahabharata. The Mahabharata describes the encounter between the accomplished wrestlers Bhima and Jarasandha.

Shuai Jiao is a legendary wrestling style of Chinese antiquity used by the Yellow Emperor during his fight against the rebel Chih Yiu. This early style of combat was first called Jiao Ti (butting with horns).

Greek wrestling was a popular form of martial art in which points were awarded for touching a competitor's back to the ground, forcing a competitor out of bounds (arena).Three falls determined the winner. It was at least featured as a sport since the eighteenth Olympiad in 704 BC. Wrestling is described in the earliest celebrated works of Greek literature, the Iliad and the Odyssey. Wrestlers were also depicted in action on many vases, sculptures, and coins, as well as in other literature. Other cultures featured wrestling at royal or religious celebrations, but the ancient Greeks structured their style of wrestling as part of a tournament where a single winner emerged from a pool of competitors. Late Greek tradition also stated that Plato was known for wrestling in the Isthmian games.

This continued into the Hellenistic period. Ptolemy II and Ptolemy III of Egypt were both depicted in art as victorious wrestlers. After the Roman conquest of the Greeks, Greek wrestling was absorbed by the Roman culture and became Roman Wrestling during the period of the Roman Empire (510 BC to AD 500). By the eighth century, the Byzantine emperor Basil I, according to court historians, won in wrestling against a boastful wrestler from Bulgaria.

Middle Ages and Renaissance

Michiel Sweerts, Wrestling Match, 1649.

In 1520 at the Field of the Cloth of Gold pageant, Francis I of France threw Henry VIII of England in a wrestling shoes match.

In Henry VIII's kingdom, folk wrestling in many places was widely popular and had a long history.
 
 

In Asia

Two wrestlers, drawing of a detail of a Dunhuang fresco, ca. 7th century.

China

"Jiao li" was a public sport in the Qin Dynasty (221-207 BC) held for court amusement as well as for recruiting the best fighters. Competitors wrestled each other on a raised platform called a lei tai. The term "shuai jiao" was chosen by the Central Guoshu Academy of Nanjing in 1928 when competition rules began to be standardized.

India

South Asian wrestling was codified into four types that progressed from sport (malakride) to combat (malla-yuddha). Mughal conquerors introduced more groundwork and referred to their grappling style as kusti. Competitors still wrestle as in ancient times, on dirt floors while wearing only kowpeenam or loincloth.

Japan

The term jūjutsu was coined in the 17th century, after which time it became a blanket term for a wide variety of grappling-related disciplines in Japanese martial arts. Prior to that time, these skills had names such as "short sword grappling" (kogusoku koshi no mawari?), "grappling" ( kumiuchi?), "body art" ( taijutsu?), "softness" (yawara?), "art of harmony" (wajutsu, yawarajutsu?), "catching hand" (torite?), and even the "way of softness" (jūdō?) (as early as 1724, almost two centuries before Kanō Jigorō founded the modern art of Kodokan Judo). The systems of unarmed combat that were developed and practiced during the Muromachi period (before 1573) are today referred to collectively as Japanese old-style jujutsu (Nihon koryū jūjutsu?).

Modern history

The Lancashire style of folk wrestling may have formed the basis for Catch wrestling also known as "catch as catch can." The Scots later formed a variant of this style, and the Irish developed the "collar-and-elbow" style which later found its way into the United States. The French developed the modern Greco-Roman style which was finalized by the 19th century and by then, wrestling was featured in many fairs and festivals.

Wrestling at the 1904 Summer Olympics.

Because of that and the rise of gymnasiums and athletic clubs, Greco-Roman wrestling and modern freestyle wrestling were soon regulated in formal competitions. On continental Europe, prize money was offered in large sums to the winners of Greco-Roman tournaments, and freestyle wrestling spread rapidly in the United Kingdom and in the United States after the American Civil War. Professional wrestling soon increased the popularity of Greco-Roman and freestyle wrestling around the world with such competitors as Georg Hackenschmidt, Stanislaus Zbyszko, William Muldoon, and Frank Gotch. When the Olympic Games resurfaced at Athens in 1896, Greco-Roman wrestling was introduced. After not being featured in the 1900 Olympics, sport wrestling was seen again in 1904 in St. Louis; this time in freestyle competition. Since then, Greco-Roman and freestyle wrestling have both been featured, with women's freestyle added in the Summer Olympics of 2004. Since 1921, the International Federation of Associated Wrestling Styles (FILA) has regulated amateur wrestling as an athletic discipline.