Wrestling

In wrestling two athletes try to take their opponent down, pin his shoulders to the mat or score points with holds and throws. The Olympic programme has two styles: in Greco-Roman wrestling only holds above the waist are allowed, while freestyle permits leg holds and trips.

History

Wrestling is one of humanity's oldest sports and entered the ancient Olympic Games in 708 BC. At the modern Games, Greco-Roman wrestling has been held since 1896, freestyle since 1904 and women's wrestling since 2004. The international federation, United World Wrestling (UWW), was founded in 1912.

Every Turkic people has its own wrestling tradition: Turkish oil wrestling and Kırkpınar, Azerbaijani zurkhaneh wrestling, Uzbek kurash, Kazakh kuresi, Kyrgyz alysh, Tatar and Bashkir köräş, and Tuvan khuresh. The Kırkpınar oil-wrestling festival is counted among the oldest continuously held sporting events in the world and is on UNESCO's list.

Major competitions

The Olympic Games, World and European Championships, the Asian Games and the World Nomad Games (traditional styles).

Wrestling in the Turkic world

Türkiye has won most of its Olympic golds in wrestling: Yaşar Doğu (1948), Hamit Kaplan (1956), Hamza Yerlikaya (1996, 2000), Taha Akgül (2016) and many more. Azerbaijan's Olympic champions include Namig Abdullayev (2000), Farid Mansurov (2004), Toghrul Asgarov and Sharif Sharifov (2012).

Kazakhstan's Zhaksylyk Ushkempirov won Greco-Roman gold in 1980. Sakha (Yakut) wrestlers Roman Dmitriev (1972) and Pavel Pinigin (1976) won Olympic freestyle titles. Kyrgyzstan's Akzhol Makhmudov took silver at Tokyo 2020 and in 2022 and 2023 became his country's first Greco-Roman world champion. Hungary's Tamás Lőrincz became Olympic Greco-Roman champion at Tokyo 2020.

Famous Turkic wrestlers

Yaşar Doğu, Hamit Kaplan, Hamza Yerlikaya, Taha Akgül, Rıza Kayaalp, Namig Abdullayev, Farid Mansurov, Toghrul Asgarov, Sharif Sharifov, Akzhol Makhmudov, Aisuluu Tynybekova, Meerim Zhumanazarova and Yasemin Adar.