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The ancient
Greek were the first to wrestle. It was part of the Olympic
games in 708 B.C. It was a lot more violent, and ties to what military
training. Wrestling quickly spread through the Romans and on to
Japan, China, and throughout the middle east. Wrestling died out
when the Olympic games did, in the Dark Ages. When the 1896 Olympic
organizers, searching for sports with roots they decided to use
wrestling. Modern Greco-Roman wrestling was first made popular
in France. During the same time period another brand of
wrestling came to be. Unlike Greco-Roman wrestlers who used
throws and and upper body holds, you could do more things in freestyle
wrestling. They could trip their opponents, grab their legs and
use their own legs for takedowns and holds. Freestyle wrestling
became known as catch me if you can and was popular in the ninetieth
century.
Despite coming back from the Olympic tradition, the showcased wrestling in the 1896 Olympics was closer to freestyle than Greco-Roman. The best in the Olympics was Carl Schumann in the wrestling heavy weight class. He wasn't considered the most athletic because of his wrestling victory but because he had a gymnastics gold medal. after the Olympics wrestling was considered freestyle wrestling.
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