Greco-Roman Wrestling
Ελληνορωμαϊκή πάληThe Olympic wrestling style in which only the upper body may be attacked; the legs are entirely out of play. Despite the name it is a modern French discipline of the 1800s.
Quick Facts
GreeceCharacter & Origin
Training
Who It Suits
Organisation & Competition
What the style is built from
Editorial rating on a 0–3 scale, based on how much room each area gets in ordinary training.
Catalogs & Databases for Greco-Roman Wrestling
About Greco-Roman Wrestling
Greco-Roman wrestling is, despite its name, a modern discipline. It arose in nineteenth-century France, when circus and fairground wrestlers were looking for rules for public bouts; the name was meant to lend prestige by invoking antiquity, but the style has no direct link to ancient wrestling. It has been on the programme of the modern Olympic Games since the first of them, in Athens in 1896. One defining rule changes everything: **grips below the waist and any use of the legs to attack or defend are forbidden**. You may not seize an opponent's leg, sweep him, or use a leg to defend against a throw. All the work moves upwards — into grips on the arms, neck and torso. The result is wrestling built on throws through the upper body. The suplex, a throw over the arched body backwards, is the style's visual signature and its most demanding technique in terms of back strength and safe execution. Clinch work, pushing, and the ability to keep the opponent propped so that he cannot establish his own grip are decisive. Bouts run over two three-minute periods. Victory comes by fall (touché), on points for technical actions, or by technical superiority at a difference of eight points. The load falls above all on the neck, shoulders and lower back; because of its one-sidedness it is often supplemented by freestyle, which uses the legs.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.