"Wrestling is the world's oldest sport with evidence suggesting bare-handed combat was contested more than 5,000 years ago in Egypt," says BBC Sports ("Ancient Art").  Wrestling as an Olympic game started in 708 B.C.  It's said that wrestling died out in the Dark ages with the Olympics, but when organizers of the 1896 Olympic games committee were deciding to restart the Olympics, they naturally looked to wrestling to be there for them.  The modern style of wrestling is called the Greco-Roman style.  Many people believe that this style of wrestling came from the Greeks, but history proves that it comes from France.  As with many sports, there are variations to the game.  In the United States, we used the Freestyle method.  This consists of wrestlers who try "to throw or otherwise force their opponents to the mat with holds around the upper body" ("Wrestling").  The Soviet Union, and Russia, have had major success in the Greco-Roman style wrestling.  The US, on the other hand, has had 45 gold medals for Freestyle compared against the measly two in Greco-Roman.  Alexander Karelin is the only person to have won three separate times in the same weight class.  Prior to the 2000 Olympic games, the number of weight classes were at 10.  Today, that number  has slimmed up to only eight.

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