CHRONOLOGY

A History of Amateur Wrestling

Wrestling is arguably the oldest organized competitive sport in human history, predating written language in some regions. The timeline below follows the sport from the banks of the Euphrates to the modern Olympic mat.

1. c. 3000 BCE

   The Earliest Records

   Wrestling appears in some of humanity's oldest written and visual records. Babylonian and Sumerian artifacts describe grappling contests, and the Epic of Gilgamesh features wrestling as a test of heroes. Cave paintings in France and reliefs in Egypt (c. 2300 BCE) show hold-for-hold contests that are unmistakably wrestling.

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2. 708 BCE

   Wrestling Enters the Olympics

   Wrestling is added to the ancient Olympic Games and quickly becomes its centerpiece — the final event of the pentathlon and, in the words of the Greeks, the most important skill for a soldier. Competitors wrestled in the palaestra, often to exhaustion, in what Greeks called kato pali (ground wrestling).

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3. 146 BCE – 1500s CE

   Rome, and the Medieval Field

   The Romans adopt Greek wrestling for military training, and after the empire's fall the sport spreads through medieval Europe. Wrestling is practiced by peasants and kings alike — several English and French monarchs were noted grapplers — while indigenous nations across the Americas maintain their own rich wrestling traditions.

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4. 1700s – 1800s

   Catch Wrestling and the Carnival Circuit

   Lancashire, England gives rise to catch-as-catch-can wrestling, a loose style allowing nearly any hold. Traveling strongmen and carnival wrestlers bring the style to America, where frontier matches are settled under local rules. A young Abraham Lincoln was reputedly a formidable county-level wrestler.

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5. 1896 – 1912

   The Modern Olympic Stage

   Wrestling appears at the first modern Olympic Games in Athens, and Greco-Roman wrestling — which forbids attacks below the waist — is codified internationally. In 1912 the International Federation of Associated Wrestling Styles (FILA, now United World Wrestling) is founded in Stockholm to standardize the sport.

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6. 1900s – Present

   Collegiate, Freestyle, and a Global Mat

   American colleges formalize folkstyle (collegiate) wrestling with its emphasis on control and riding, while freestyle — closer to catch wrestling — becomes the international standard. Women's freestyle debuts at the 2004 Athens Olympics. FILA is rebranded United World Wrestling in 2014, and the sport remains a cornerstone of the Games and of scholastic athletics worldwide.