Wrestling Greco Roman Introduction

            Wrestling Greco Roman is a style of wrestling that is practiced worldwide. It was contested at the first modern Olympic Games in 1896 and has been included in every edition of the summer Olympics held since 1908. 

                Two wrestlers are scored for their performance in three two minute periods, which can be terminated early by a pin fall. This style of wrestling forbids holds below the waist which is the major difference between itself and freestyle wrestling, the other form of wrestling at the Olympics. This restriction results in an emphasis on throws, even a wrestler cannot use trips to take an opponent to the ground or avoid throws by hooking or grabbing their opponent's leg.

                       The name "Greco Roman" was applied to this style of wrestling as a way of purporting it to be similar to the wrestling formerly found in the ancient civilizations surrounding the Mediterranean Sea. Despite the implications of its name, it is a modern style, of relatively recent origin. It was devised in France during the decades following the Napoleonic wars. It is speculated that many styles of European folk wrestling may have spurred the origins of Greco Roman wrestling. According to FILA, a Napoleonic soldier named Jean Exbrayat first developed the style. Exbrayat performed in fairs and called his style of wrestling "flat hand wrestling" to distinguish it from other forms of hand-to-hand combat that allowed striking. In 1848, Exbrayat established the rule that no holds below the waist were to be allowed; neither were painful holds or torsions that would hurt the opponent. "Flat hand wrestling" or "French wrestling" developed all throughout Europe and became a popular sport. The Italian wrestler Basilio Bartoletti first coined the term "Greco Roman" for the sport to underline the interest in "ancient values." Many others in the 18th and 19th centuries sought to add value to their contemporary athletic practices by finding some connections with ancient counterparts. The 18th century work Gymnastics for Youth by Johann Friedrich Guts Muths described a form of schoolboy wrestling called "orthopale" used by Plato to describe the standing part of wrestling that did not mention any lower body holds. Real ancient wrestling was quite different. 

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