Greco Roman Wrestling

The Greco-Roman wrestling originated from the lands to the east of the Mediterranean Sea. These lands are considered to be the place where the ancient Greeks resided. Greeks considered that wrestling should not only be a part of soldier's training alone but for every youngster. In Greece men were not only trained on grammar, mathematics, etc but also physical training, which included wrestling. Boys were teamed up into pairs and were taught the art of wrestling in their master's Palaestra (Greek school for sports). The Greeks considered wrestling as an exercise more than a martial art for developing grace, dynamic characters that requires skill and a good physique.

According to Greek literature wrestling was considered as a sacred art or sport practiced by gods and kings, soldiers and civilians to get rid of evil, and win over ignorance and brutality. Almost all of the mythical heroes of Greece are described as skilled wrestlers. Their acknowledgment for skills led to the inclusion of Wrestling as a major sport in Olympic games in 704 B.C. Before its inclusion in Olympics, Wrestling was a major event in the pentathalon.  Wrestling is depicted in many of the sculptures in Greece and Rome. There are also many writings, which talk about the wrestling matches during the 800 B.C. Wrestling was also the major sport during the festival times in ancient Greece even in Olympic games. Foot races, Javelin throwing, diskos throwing, chariot racing, etc were also included in Olympic games.

Freestyle Wrestling is a form of wrestling, which was practiced in ancient Olympics. Milo of Croton was considered to be the famous Greek Wrestler, the winner of 6 Olympic championships. This form of wrestling had rough times due high privileges and prizes, which were given to the professional wrestlers. This brought disinterest among the common people and lead to the decline of wrestling. In addition corruption also played a trivial role in the decline of wrestling since the wealthy wrestlers bought their victories by bribing the opponents. The rise of Roman Empire added to the cause of the decline of wrestling. With the Romans capture of Greece, Greek form of wrestling lost its popularity due to the Romans disinterest in Greek form of wrestling. Violence, brutal force, agility were the Romans interest and this is the reason for the survival of Pankration with other forms of wrestling. Pankration is nothing but Roman and Greek styles' combination and now known as Greco - Roman wrestling.

In this style of wrestling the competitors could attack opponents only on their upper body, that is above the opponents' waist. But still the worst struck the Greek style of wrestling. The inclusion of the Greek Wrestling in Olympics also led to the decline of Greek wrestling since, the Japanese forms of wrestling were very advanced and the Greeks were unable to stand the other opponents. Neverthless, Greco Roman Wrestling persists in the Olympic games, countries like Romania, Bulgaria, Japan, Sweden and Finland still has the flair for Greco Roman wrestling.