Wrestling made simple

Wrestling has impressive credentials, being one of the few Olympic sports to have spanned the 1,500 years or so between the ancient and the modern games.

The sport has two disciplines: Greco-Roman, which in complete contradiction of its name was invented in the 19th century, and freestyle or catch-as-catch-can.

Greco-Roman has been a fixture since1896 and allows action only above the hips, both as a method of attack or as a target for an opponent. In freestyle, which made its debut in 1904, a wrestler can attack his opponent's legs and use his own.

Trading on its vintage, tradition plays an integral part and several long-standing rules still exist. For instance, each wrestler must carry a handkerchief to clear away blood, saliva and,with respect to the sensitive, snot. The handkerchief is carried in the jockstrap; so, if your opponent offers you his, politely refuse.

A wrestler must also be completely dry at the start of a bout: no sweat or grease of any kind is permitted. In the early days the bouts could go on a bit. When the Estonian Martin Klein and Finland's Alfred Askiainen stepped on to the mat in Stockholm in 1912, they were at it for more than 11 hours - including refreshment breaks - before Klein pinned down his opponent.

For Sydney the fights are limited to a more sensible two three-minute rounds. In case you get the wrong idea, Olympic wrestling bears no similarity to that of the World Wrestling Federation, although the Atlanta games did foster the career of Kurt Angle, above. With a name like that, Angle's future as a performer was mapped out long before the world knew of him, though it did not, perhaps, take quite the turn he expected.

Angle won the freestyle heavyweight title by defeating the Iranian Abbas Jadidy in a feisty set-to, and two years later fulfilled his ambition to become a luvvie by joining the WWF. In a piece of inspired casting the federation gave the 220lb champion the role of a 31-year-old virgin.

The Brits

Sixteen years after Noel Loban won a bronze medal, we could not muster a single qualifier although John Melling did go close, finishing fourth in one of the qualifying tournaments.

The best

Alexander Karelin, or Sasha as his family and friends know him, wanted to follow in his father's footsteps and become a lorry driver. But at the age of13 he was spotted by the coach Viktor Kuznetzov, who moulded the Siberian into the greatest wrestler the world has known. Karelin who is 6ft 3in and weighs 20st, has won three Olympic titles, nine world titles and 12 European titles. Mainstream records suggest that he has not lost a single bout since he graduated to the senior ranks in 1987.

The rest

Guinea Bissau will not have a huge team in Sydney. It will probably be two. In Atlanta a twin room satisfied their needs as EmbaloTalata, a freestyle wrestler, and the 100m sprinter Amarildo Almeida were their only Olympians. Talata was 20th out of the 21 in the 57kg (now 58kg) category but this did not mean he was useless as he drew Kendall Cross, the eventual champion from the United States, in the first round.

Is it worth waiting for?

Our source in Novosibirsk, western Siberia, tells us that, when Karelin had a fridge delivered some years ago and it proved difficult to get up to his eighth-floor apartment because there was no lift, Karelin simply shouldered it and carried it aloft. Carrying fridges up eight flights of stairs is not an Olympic sport. This is a pity because it would be much more exciting than Greco-Roman wrestling. Sleeping is more exciting than Greco-Roman wrestling.

When?

Finals
54/63/76/97kg
26 September

58/69/85/130kg
27 September