The Greatest Freestyle Wrestlers of All Time

A short history of Freestyle Wrestling

Freestyle descends from catch-as-catch-can, a style that drew crowds at fairs and festivals in 19th-century Britain and the United States; the version from Lancashire was especially influential. Bouts began standing, and if no fall was scored they continued on the ground, where almost any hold was allowed. The style spread widely in the United States, where at least half a dozen presidents, Abraham Lincoln among them, wrestled catch-as-catch-can.

Freestyle entered the Olympics at St. Louis in 1904, where all 40 wrestlers were American, and those Games introduced weight classes to Olympic wrestling. Since 1921 the international federation now called United World Wrestling has written the rules. Scoring evolved slowly: a point system from Oklahoma State coach Art Griffith gained acceptance in 1941, and visible scoring later replaced judges' secret paddles. The first freestyle world championships were held in Helsinki in 1951.

Wrestlers from the former Soviet states, Iran, the United States, Bulgaria, Cuba, Turkey and Japan have had the strongest showings. Aleksandr Medved won three Olympic titles from 1964 to 1972, and Dan Gable won gold at Munich in 1972 without giving up a point. Women's world championships began in Norway in 1987, and women's freestyle joined the Olympics at Athens in 2004, where Japan's Saori Yoshida and Kaori Icho began long runs of Olympic titles.

In February 2013 the International Olympic Committee voted to drop wrestling from the core program for 2020. Under new president Nenad Lalović the federation changed its rules to make bouts faster and added women's weight classes, and on 8 September 2013 wrestling was reinstated. The federation took the name United World Wrestling in 2014. For Canada, a high point came at Sydney in 2000, when Nigerian-born Daniel Igali won Olympic gold at 69 kg.

• ✦Matches are two three-minute periods; the wrestler with more points at the end wins.
• ✦Pinning both of the opponent's shoulders to the mat, a fall, ends the match immediately.
• ✦A 10-point lead ends the match early by technical superiority.
• ✦Unlike Greco-Roman, wrestlers may attack the legs and use their own legs to trip, lift and defend.
• ✦Points reward explosive action and risk, so big throws that expose an opponent's back score the most.
• ✦A passive wrestler gets 30 seconds to score; if they do not, the opponent receives a point.