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Oldest Sport
Wrestling holds the title of the oldest sport in known history. The legends of Greek mythology tell the tale of Greek God Zeus defeating Cronus in a wrestling match for the possession of the universe at the beginning of time. Wrestling appeared all over the ancient world, from France to Mongolia, in artwork, writing, and even cave carvings, wrestling appears everywhere.
Wrestling being the first sport in the Greek games, as well as cave paintings in ancient France from about 17,000 years ago hold water to these claims. Other instances of this age old sport throughout history include a literal Battle of Kings took place when King Francis I of France defeated King Henry VIII of England in an impromptu wrestling match at the Field of the Cloth of Gold pageant.
Many of the things done by times old wrestlers would be seen as extreme in modern times. In 1932 , Swedish-born Ivar Johanssen won the freestyle gold in the 180 lbs. weight class and then dropped a whopping 22 pounds in 24 hours to enter the 158.5 lbs. weight class, where he won gold again. In 1960, Soviet wrestler Avtandil Koridze etched his name in Cold War infamy after a suspicious and likely-fixed bout. Koridze whispered mysteriously into his opponent’s ear, and watched as his opponent suddenly fell to his back and let Koridze pin him, leading eventually to his gold medal win.
Greek Wrestling
Greek wrestling, also known as “Pale” had a solid foundation in ancient Greece long before 776 B.C., the first recorded Olympic Games. Wrestling may have been the most popular sport in Greece, but it’s rules and regulations, and even the sport itself are drastically different now. Greek wrestling allowed the two wrestlers to grapple until one of two things happened,...
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Currently
Wrestling has grown to extensive amounts since it’s infancy. It has become one of the most organized and planned out sports in our Olympics, with some of the worlds most committed and die-hard fans to enter a stadium. Wrestling is still practiced almost everywhere in the world, whether it be in one of it’s more traditional forms, or the more modern one.
As for modern wrestling, it is constantly evolving. New techniques, rules, and, of course, athletes are constantly coming to the table. Because of this, athletes must stay ever-alert of rule changes, and new techniques, otherwise they will not last very long in the sport. Luckily, today’s media helps to keep not only athletes, but fans, in the know about any changes or improvements. Wrestling will continue to bring new things to the table, keeping it’s spectators forever interested.
Vince McMahon’s WWF is a multi-million dollar corporation and has been wildly successful in capturing the sports entertainment market. “Monday Night Raw,” the weekly soap opera on TNN, is one of the three most watched cable shows each week. In addition, the WWF has weekly wrestling shows on UPN and MTV. Personally, I am caught up in the phenomenon. I set aside my Monday evenings to watch Monday Night Football and professional wrestling. I enjoy attempting to figure out the storylines before they unfold and attempt to guess the action that may happen in the next segment.
The more deaths that were taken place within the industry, the more the industry kept being looked at by the media. The media began to get ahold of medical reports from doctors stating the cause of deaths and how many wrestlers have died from it. Swartz stated “ at least 65 wrestlers died in that time, 25 from heart attacks or other coronary problems -- an extraordinarily high rate for people that young, medical officials say”(Behind fun façade…). Once this all became public to the world wrestling promoters and those who were in high position of power began to take action. It took a high number of tragedies for the company to realize the difference between right from wrong and to understand that the wrestlers are human being as well and do also have a health
I have many things that I love in this life, one of those things is wrestling. I have been wrestling for seven years and I have developed quite the passion and love for it. Wrestling has always been an interesting sport for me. Growing up in Oregon I watched my uncles wrestle in high school. I watched both of them win their state tournament in their respective weight classes, this is one of my fondest memories of my childhood. One of them went on to wrestle division one, I thought this was the coolest thing in the world. I looked up to my uncles and wanted to be just like them. I did not always wrestle though. The process of pursing my dream as of becoming a wrestler started of with basketball, then went to a rocky start, then being on Worland High School wrestling team.
Fireworks as if it were the fourth of July. Thousands of people in an arena and billions watching around the world anxiously awaiting the arrival of their favorite superstar. Suddenly the crowd erupts as a man comes strutting down to the squared circle. Accompanied by a beautiful busty young woman, the wrestler is cheered by his loyal fans and booed by his enemies. Soon , another man enters the stadium the same way as the first man. The two men stip into the ring with a certain sense of cockiness about themselves. Before the referee can even tell everyone that the match has started, the two men are already battling in the “squared circle';. During the fight there are many suspenseful moments. Brutally beating each other for five minutes the match is finally over with some bloodshed. Today people are taking wwf professional wrestling to the extreme. WWF wrestling is one of the most watched shows on television today. WWF stands for the World Wrestling Federation. Wrestling started sometime it the mid to late sixties and has changed dramatically over the years. When wrestling first came to be the wrestlers weren’t like they were today. Back in the olden days of WWF wrestling, the storyline of wrestling wasn’t as vulgar, and the industry was not as wide spread throughout the world. Today the whole industry of the WWF is benefitting from merchandise being sold all over the globe. Even though many people may consider wrestling to be fake, know that some aspects are very real.
The first style of wrestling is Folkstyle. Folkstyle is mainly wrestled in College, High School and Middle School Events, although some kids practice and participate in elementary school. Folkstyle has a rich heritage going back to the beginning days of the United States and has touched every part of American Life. The first real traces of the development of wrestling date back to Sumerians over 5,000 years ago. The Epic of Gilgamesh written in cuneiform, the sculptures and low beliefs, are numerous sources that reveal the first referred competitions, accompanied by music. There are also many historical and archaeological traces of wrestling in Ancient Egypt. Worthy of mentioning, among them is in particular the drawings discovered in the tombs of Beni-Hassan representing of 400 couples of wrestling. Many United States Presidents were Folkstyle wrestlers. This list includes Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt, and the speaker of American House of Representatives, Mr. Denny Hastert, who also became a distinguished Folkstyle coach. Folkstyle wrestling is the fifth most popular sport in American High Schools and most commonly practiced style of wrestling in the United States. The pinnacle of the sport, the national university tournament, is br...
The Pentathlon was the name for the five events in Greek gymnastics: running, jumping, wrestling, discus throwing, and javelin throwing which began with the 18th Olympiad. In the wrestling event, wrestlers were anointed with oil, dusted with powder, and forbidden to bite or gouge one another. Wrestling was looked upon as a weapon-free military exercise. Since there was no weapons wrestlers that competed used their weight and strength as an advantage especially since there were no weight categories. The Javelin was thrown in the same form back in ancient times as it is thrown today. The first recorded Olympic Games had one event, a race, called the stade which is a measure of the distance of the length of the track. By 724 B.C. a two-length race was added and by 700 B.C. there were longer distance races. By 720 B.C., men participated naked, except in the foot race in armor that weighed between fifty to sixty pounds. The outfit included a helmet, greaves, and a shield that helped young men build speed and stamina in preparation for war. The Pentathlon included three running events such as the Stade, the Diaulos, and the Dolichos. The Stade was a 200 yard foot race, was the first and only Olympic event for 13 Games. The dolichos was a variable length foot race averaging twenty stades or four thousand yards for the fifteenth Olympiad. The Diaulos was a four hundred yard foot race that was instituted for the next Olympic Games. The discus was considered by ancient Greeks, an event of rhythm, precision, and finesse of a competitor to throw the discus was as important as his strength. The discus was made of stone, iron, bronze, or lead, and was shaped like a flying saucer. The Sizes were different for the boys' division, since the boys were not expected to throw the same weighted discus as the men. The athletes who competed in the jump event used lead or stone jump weights called halteres shaped like telephone receivers to increase ...
Wrestling is a great sport to better yourself and earn a bunch of awards and titles to look back on later on in life. It 's something i will never forget and cherish always. But the memories of losing all the weight and making myself miserable for all those seasons is something i will not miss. People around me were only worried about the medals i had gotten and not about my personal being, that 's where wrestling goes wrong. That 's what needs to change in the future for not only wrestlers but the people around them as well.
Following Poliakoff’s introduction to the ancient combat sports, he proceeds to provide a basic outline to the world of ancient combat sports in a series of sections within the chapter, including: The definition of a ‘combat sport’ and its relation to recreation and training; similarities amongst combat sports, training methods and common practise; the premise of athletic festivals, and the organization of said competition.
CLAP, CLAP, CLAP, CLAP, echoes through my head as I walk to the middle of the mat. "At 160lbs Aidan Conner of La Junta vs. Rodney Jones of Hotchkiss." All I can think of is every bead of sweat, every drip of blood, every mile, every push up, every tear. Why? All of this: just to be victorious. All in preparation for one match, six minutes. For some these six minutes may only be a glimpse, and then again for some it may be the biggest six minutes of their life. Many get the chance to experience it more than once. Some may work harder and want it more than others, but they may never get the chance. All they get is a moral victory. Every kid, every man comes into the tournament with a goal. For some is to win, for some is to place, others are just happy to qualify. These six minutes come on a cold frigid night in February at a place called the Pepsi Center. Once a year this gathering takes place when the small and the large, the best of the best, come to compete in front thousands of people. I am at the Colorado State Wrestling Championships.
In the past four years of my life, no activity has affected me more than wrestling. Four years of varsity wrestling and the honor of being a team captain has instilled many qualities in me. First, through years of hard work and continuous dieting, wrestling has given me discipline. This discipline has spread to other parts of my personality, including my moral character, work ethic, and perserverence. Another quality wrestling has given me is leadership. As a team captain, I have learned to lead by example, both on and off the mat. Above all, though, wrestling has given me a love of life. Through this sport, I have experienced pain, sacrifice, adversity, and success. Exposure to these feelings-which are, in my opinion, the essence of being-has
Wrestling has been around longer than any other sport recorded as far as we know. Wrestling is the Number 6 sport for high schoolers primarily male. Wrestling was one of the sports in the ancient Olympic Games in Greece, dating back to 776 B.C. The United States has won 129 Olympic medals, which is fourth among all U.S.
The most famous of the Greek wrestlers was the philosopher, Plato, who won many prizes for wrestling as a young man. “Plato was a philosopher in Classical Greece and the founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world.” His real name was Aristocles he was given the name Plato, meaning ”broad shoulders” because of his success wrestling. Wrestling also has been popular in the Orient for at least 20 centuries. Syndicated feature columnist L. M. Boyd has stated that the Kingdom of Japan was wagered on the outcome of a wrestling match in 858 A.D. Two distinctive styles emerged in Japan, sumo and judo, and both remain immensely popular today.Wrestling clearly has no single point of origin. “The Oldest Sport.” More than 160 traditional or ”folk-lore” variants are recognized by the International Amateur Wrestling Federation. “The Oldest Sport.” The modern Olympic Games resumed in Athens in 1896, wrestling became a focus of the Games. This was because organizers considered it historically significant; indeed Greco-Roman wrestling was deemed a pure reincarnation of ancient Greek and Roman wrestling.The 1900 Games were the only ones where wrestling was not present in any shape or form. As from the 1908 Olympic Games in London, Greco-Roman wrestling has always been included on the program. Since the 1920 Antwerp Games, there have been both freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling
Athletes only competed in one event: a foot race. Other events were added over the years such as, chariot racing, boxing, wrestling, and the the pentathlon. All participants were young men from Greek city-states and colonies. These young men often battled it out in the buff as a way to celebrate the human body, and winners received olive branches. In 393 A.D. the last ancient Olympics
Ancient Olympics The ancient Olympics had some differences from the modern Games. There were fewer events, and only free men who spoke Greek could compete, instead of athletes from any country. Women where not allowed to even watch the games on penalty of death let alone play in them.. Also, the games were always held at Olympia in Greece instead of being moved around to different sites every time. But also they had some similarities to our modern Olympics, winning athletes were heroes who put their home towns on the map, and became financially sound for life. The conflict between the Olympic's ideals of sportsmanship and unity and the commercialism and political acts which accompany the Games where also present in ancient times. "Sotades at the ninety-ninth Festival was victorious in the long race and proclaimed a Cretan, as in fact he was. But at the next Festival he made himself an Ephesian, being bribed to do so by the Ephesian people. For this act he was banished by the Cretans."