All of us, without exception, have at least heard of the sport of wrestling, which is one of the oldest sports! And those who still did not know about its existence and importance until now, through the Olympic Games this year in Paris, France, celebrated together with all of Greece with the victory of the “bronze” Dauren Kourougliev!
Freestyle wrestling has “deep” roots, those of catch-as-catch-can and the primary condition of victory in this style involves the wrestler throwing and immobilizing his opponent on the ground.
This style allows the wrestler to use his or her opponent’s legs in attack and defense.
It is an Olympic sport for men and women. As far as women’s wrestling is concerned, it is done only in freestyle and the athletes are divided into four weight classes.
Its origin is lost in the depths of the centuries. Homer mentions in the Iliad, which was written in the 8th BC. century, the wrestling matches in honor of Patroclus during the siege of Troy and the confrontation between the king of Ithaca, Odysseus, and Aedas, son of the king of Salamis, Telamon.
In addition to ancient Greece, wrestling was worshiped in Egypt, Mesopotamia and India. Proof that wrestling is the oldest sport is the fact that the first gymnasium was called “Palestra”.
In Ancient Greece, wrestling was the main means of educating young people. And she had the character of demonstration, readiness of spirit, art and strength and was free from all feelings of rage and animalistic irritation.
As stated in pelop.grthe wrestling coach Mr. Zafeiris Rellos, “wrestling is a special educational tool, for the improvement of human personality. It’s that sport that offers great speed of thought.”
Let’s not forget that ancient Greece “gave birth” to the special personality of Milos of Crotoniatis (557 BC), who was one of the greatest wrestlers of antiquity, as he was a six-time Olympian and a five-time periodical. In other words, he had over thirty victories in Stefanite (Panhellenic) competitions in at least 24 years!
Plato characterizes wrestling as “the most technical and ingenious of the sports”. In Greece, Freestyle wrestling flourished and spread from the interwar period. A leading Greek wrestler was Giorgos Hatziioannidis who won the bronze medal at the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games.
Rules of combat
It is said that the rules of wrestling were established by Orikadmos, an old athlete from Sicily.
As mentioned by various ancient writers, hitting was not allowed, while genital grabbing was prohibited, as well as biting and fighting outside the pit.
Violation of the regulations was punishable by a fine, expulsion from the matches, and also corporal punishment. The word “Gymnasium” comes from the word naked, because the Greeks practiced naked.
The word “palaestra” defined the place where the wrestlers trained. The word palestra later acquired a wider meaning and all gymnasiums were called palaistres. All ancient city-states had to have gymnasiums and arenas.
The Greeks never stopped loving and practicing wrestling.
Free Wrestling in Achaia
The modern history of wrestling in Achaia began in 2001, when the Greco-Roman World Championship was organized at the “Dimitrios Tofalos” Stadium.
With the contribution of the then vice-president of EL.O.P., Mr. Dionysis Giakoumelou, our city subsequently hosted until 2004 the later Olympic gold medalist Irini Merleni and the Ukrainian coach Yannis Tabounidis, who transferred their specialized knowledge to sport of freestyle wrestling to the later coaches, Giorgos Ralli (former athlete of the late Yiannis Manis) and Zafeiris Rello (graduated wrestling coach from the General Secretariat of Sports) for four years. The two, after obtaining their wrestling coaching diploma in 2007 from the GGA coaching school, enthusiastically and selflessly began to coach young athletes, with the support of veteran athletes Alexandros Makrygiannis and Spilios Dafaranos. Their experience contributed substantially to the cultivation and development of the potential of young athletes, through the A.S. Sports Clubs. Polyniki and G.K. Olympia Club.
It is worth mentioning that Mr. Dionysis Giakoumelos – who has also served as Vice President of the Hellenic Wrestling Federation – and Maria Tsoukala, who in turn worked for the Federation, helped to spread the sport at least at the level of Achaia.
Notable was the presence of the Pyrgiite wrestling coach, Alexis Kalitsopoulos, Christos Sidiropoulos (TEFAA professor and wrestling coach), Yiannis Arzoumanidis (2-time World Champion), Babis Kesanidis (wrestling coach), Mosien Pyrgai (wrestling coach) and of course of Maria-Louisa Vryonis (wrestling coach), who contributed the most to the development of wrestling in Achaia and continue “steadily” to this day.
As it happened in all sporting activities, the pandemic affected the sport negatively, resulting in the closure of one of the two clubs and the withdrawal of many of the athletes from the competition team.
In addition, Mr. Rallis, one of the two coaches and a pillar of the sport, was forced to retire for professional reasons. Then, and for three years, wrestling in Achaia was preserved thanks to the personal efforts of Mr. Rellos and some of the young distinguished athletes, such as Iason Papathanasopoulos, Orestis Papathanasopoulos and George Karalis, who kept alive the training and the activity of the hall of the Stadium.
In Achaia, wrestling now numbers over 200 athletes of various ages and levels, most of whom engage in the sport for training or self-defense purposes.
From 2001 until today, many athletes have achieved significant success in official Panhellenic championships and international competitions which we would like to list alphabetically:
Antonopoulou Panagiota, Iagos Elias, Chancellor Angelos, Karalis Giorgos, Lazos Konstantinos, Barla Maria, Nano Alexandros, Panagiotopoulos Konstantinos, Papathanasopoulos Iasonas Papathanasopoulos Orestes, Poulos Dionysis and Sipsa Anna-Maria, Arionas Kolitsopoulos (European champion).
See some important photos from competitions inside and outside Greece with small and… “big” athletes:
Today, a new effort to upgrade the sport is starting in the renovated wrestling hall of the Stadium by the GGA coach, Kostas Lazo (graduated wrestling coach from the General Secretariat of Sports). With the help of Zafeiris Rellos and the older athletes, the aim is to revive wrestling and repeat the distinctions that Achaia had before the pandemic.
Asked on the other hand at pelop.grMr. Lazos, on the value of Freestyle Wrestling and why a parent should think about this sport and choose to bring their child close to it, said that:
“These are difficult times that we are going through and the issue of self-defense for young people, women and children has turned our attention to a greater extent in our lives. If freestyle wrestling is significantly different from other sports, it is undoubtedly the fact that it is a sport whose basis is the noble rivalry, the ability to do self-defense, without strikes – there are only grips in wrestling, holds, the so-called ” ties”- and although it belongs to martial arts, it does not “cultivate” aggression in the very character of the athlete-wrestler! It offers strength, mastery of mind and body with concentration and self-discipline, but cultivating self-awareness. In other words, the wrestler knows the power and what knowledge he has and chooses, he exercises his power where it should if and when it is needed, as it should be. Wrestling does not “awaken” aggression in general in a person, let alone a child, on the contrary it gives them strength just in case, without making them aggressive on any occasion. The struggle somehow gives a calmness. Strength and calmness. It is important to say that wrestling “affects” the mind. The wrestler, 80% of the movements he will make in the fight, must think about them, work them in his mind very well and then 20% must have the physical condition to execute them”.
See more photos from Greek Championships and International Tournaments in Morocco and Russia:
It’s a factthat freestyle wrestling is not as… widespread as other sports and this can be easily proven by asking someone next to us a question. The fact that this sport doesn’t have that much… strong emotions, it does not make it less important than all the other sports, since this is also a great sport and even from… ancient times as we mentioned above!
Anyone who wants to get to know them up close what is freestyle wrestling and what this sport actually isthey can visit either the wrestling room of the Pamploponnisian Stadium, where freestyle wrestling practices take place (coached by Mr. Costas Lazos), or the wrestling room of the Olympia Club Gymnasium in Vrachneika Achaia (coached by Mr. Zafeiris Rello).
Let’s remember how…
Wrestling is an integral event of the Olympic Games! Among other things, it is worth mentioning that just recently, at this year’s Olympic Games 2024, which took place in Paris, France, the Greek delegation brought important medals for our country!
In the sport of freestyle wrestling, Dauren Kourougliev made all of Greece proud with the bronze medal, beating Nazem Amine Miles from San Francisco, in the 86 kg final!
used to something we don’t know well or and at all to we have a tendency to avoid itstill and exclusion regarding this. As far as sports in general and i.e. wrestlingMr. Lazos points out that, “there is possibly someone fear because they don’t know many people basically what it’s all aboutsomething that us as coaches and people close to sports in general, we always recommend getting to know the sport and then comes the choice».
Sources: wrestling-patra.blogspot.com/aodias.gr/elop.gr
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