Ananova:

A guide to the Olympic sport of Wrestling.

Technical details

Wrestling matches take place on a specially marked mat, which looks like a target.

There is a centre spot and a red one-metre wide band forming a circle of 7m.

Colours mark the competition zones, and wrestlers wear the corresponding blue or red singlet.

In Greco-Roman style, wrestlers can only attack and hold using their arms and upper body, in freestyle they can use their legs as well.

Prior to competition, wrestlers are weighed.

Wrestling matches last five minutes unless either wrestler scores a 'fall' or technical fall. A fall happens when a wrestler pins his opponent down so that both his shoulders come into contact with the mat. When this happens, the referee signals that the bout is over.

To win at the end of five minutes, a wrestler must have scored a minimum of three technical points. If neither wrestler has scored three points, then the match goes into overtime until the next point is scored, for a maximum of three minutes. If no point is scored in three minutes then judges decide. If a wrestler scores ten points in a bout he is declared winner.

Olympic history

Wrestling was part of the Ancient Olympic Games. In the Modern Olympic Games there are two styles of wrestling, Greco-Roman which appeared in the first Games in 1896 and freestyle which was added in 1904.

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