Wrestling: Where did it all begin?

Ancient Greek warriors wrestling.

As humans it is natural for us to be competitive. Whether it being in physical challenges, or mental challenges, it is instinctual for almost all humans to compete with the people around them. This instinct has been around since the dawn of time, and there is no way of stopping it because it is implemented in all of our modern sports now. Researchers say that wrestling is one of the oldest sports ever recorded, and when it was used back for the Olympics it started to get its recognition and soon enough it spread worldwide (History of Wrestling).

As we know, back before we had a way to record ourselves, people would draw out images to tell stories about all kinds of things. They used writing and drawing as a way to communicate with other cultures. In France, researchers have found a cave covered in ancient drawings depicting men wrestling, and once this cave was found they went on a hunt for more and found in Mongolia, Libya and even Japan that wrestling was also evident at the time. All these drawings were traced back to times before BC and AD, proving that ancient Greeks and Europeans used wrestling as one of their main sports. It amazes me that this sport is still around today, especially with the rise of other like gymnastics or soccer, both widely used but wrestling just makes sense that it is the oldest one.

Gymnastics was also a popular sport.

Although a lot of evidence of wrestling was found, so was evidence about running, swimming, gymnastics and boxing. All these sports were all being played at the same time and it was all over Greece, France, and Africa. Since the findings, researchers explained that not only did people use wrestling as a way to play or compete, but "ancient Greek warriors used it for spiritual reasons"(History of Wrestling). It was required by most cultures for them to learn wrestling because it was also very widely used in combat. The evolution of wrestling eventually led to more rules being applied and therefore started becoming a more international phenomenon. Among st other sports, wrestling was one of the first and a lot of people argue that wrestling isn't the oldest sport, running is.

To be fair, running has been around since even before wrestling but was it a sport before wrestling? People like to argue that running is the oldest sport recorded that did not require any equipment but wrestling does not have equipment, it has nothing besides the two bodies! Simply "running" isn't a sport, it's a race. Now when you factor in time vs distance, agility and flexibility that is when I would call it a sport. I feel though as if a sport wants to be labeled a sport it has to have one of these: equipment, a set of rules, or positions. Once rules and limitations are placed I feel as though you can establish that activity as a sport. No doubt is running a sport, and it was just as much as wrestling was around the world, but the form of running now and how it scores points was not the same back when ancient civilizations practiced it.

Wrestling was a way for men to entertain themselves, train themselves, and to build themselves. It has been a thing since the Ancient Greeks and it will be a thing after the robots take over, all because nothing is more entertaining than watching two grown men tussle around with each other until one calls uncle. Although running has a close second, wrestling is the oldest sport and will go down in history as so.


Sources:

“History of Wrestling.” RockStar Wrestling, www.rockstarwrestling.com/page/show/1658056-history-of-wrestling.

National Wrestling Hall of Fame, nwhof.org/stillwater/resources-library/history/the-oldest-sport/.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Wrestling.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 6 Feb. 2020, www.britannica.com/sports/wrestling

“The 5 Oldest Sports in the World.” Catawiki, www.catawiki.com/stories/4865-the-5-oldest-sports-in-the-world.

“8 Oldest Sports in the World.” Oldest.org, 9 Nov. 2017, www.oldest.org/sports/sports/.