Rio 2016 Olympics: Know your sport — Wrestling

Wrestling is one of the oldest sport in the Olympics and India is sending its largest wrestling squad ever to Rio 2016 Olympics.

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India will send its biggest wrestling squad ever to Rio Olympics. (Source: Express file)

The 28th edition of the modern Olympic Games will be held in Rio de Janereio from August 5 to 21. Since it first began in Athens in 1896, the Games have seen exponential growth with rise in the number of participating nations and number of athletes. The Games are being hosted in a South American city for the first time. The 2016 Games will see players competing in 41 disciplines from 28 sports. A total of 306 medals are on stake and more than 10, 500 players are participating. The sports at the Games vary from water to track and field and filed events. Each game has a different set of rules and different ways to win a medal. We bring to you a breakdown of each sport

Sports basics: Wrestling has to be one of the oldest sports in history. It is intense and physical competition. A wrestler has to train very early to hone the skills of wrestling. Both attack and defence are crucial in this physical battle as the player tries to score in various ways. Wrestling is a physical game without hurting the oppoenent.

History: Wrestling has been a part of Olympics from the first edition. Being one of the original sport, it has seen a lot of participation. But after the 2012 Olympics, IOC decided to not keep it in the the roster after the Rio Olympics. But UWW (earlier FILA) ran a campaign – Save Wrestling – and was successful in keeping the game in Olympics but only after making a series of changes. Certain weight categories were changed and new ones were included for women’s wrestling.

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Scoring format: In wrestling, a winner is decided by two methods. If a player pins (both shoulder on the mat simultaneously and with control) his opponents or scores more points in two periods of three minutes each. Points can be scored in different ways like takedowns, pushouts and passivity. If a wrestler is warned for passivity twice by referee, then he is put on a 30 sseconds shot clock to score a point failing which he will concede a point. In case of tie, the winner is decided in three different ways – player who scored the last technical point, player who had lesser cautions (criteria), player with more two points. The scoring pattern is different only for Greco-Roman. In this category, a wrestler cannot attack below the waist line. Points can only be scored by throwing the wrestling down on the mat or by pushout.

Categories: Wrestling has been divided into three categories at the Rio Olympics – men’s freestyle, women wrestling and Greco-Roman. There are further divided into six weight categories each – 57kg, 65kg, 74kg, 86kg, 97kg, 125kg in men’s freestly. 48kg, 53kg, 58kg, 63kg, 69kg, 75kg in women’s wrestling. 59kg, 66kg 75kg, 85kg, 98kg and 130kg in Greco-Roman

Indian contender(s): India is sending its largest team in wrestling to Rio with eight players. In the men’s freestyle, India will have Sandeep Tomar in 57kg, Yogeshwar Dutt in 65kg and Parveen Rana in 74kg. In the women’s freestyle, India is sending three players with Vinesh Phogat in 48kg, Babita in 53kg and Sakshi Malik in 58kg. India also has two Greco-Roman wrestlers in Ravinder Khatri in 85kg and Hardeep Singh in 98kg.