Wrestling is one of the oldest sports in the world, and one of the simplest to understand: two athletes on a mat, trying to pin each other or outscore each other. The complication is that Olympic wrestling comes in two styles with one fundamental difference between them — and that difference changes almost everything about how a match is fought.

The sport is governed internationally by United World Wrestling (UWW).

The two Olympic styles

| | Freestyle | Greco-Roman | |---|---|---| | Leg attacks | Allowed | Banned — no holds below the waist | | Who competes at the Olympics | Men and women | Men only | | Match length | Two 3-minute periods | Two 3-minute periods | | Main weapons | Leg shots, ankle picks, lifts | Throws, suplexes, gut wrenches, body locks |

Freestyle allows holds on the whole body. Wrestlers can attack the legs with single-leg and double-leg takedowns, trips and ankle picks, and can use their legs in defence as well. It is contested by both men and women at the Olympics.

Greco-Roman bans all holds below the waist. Wrestlers cannot grab legs, trip with legs, or attack below the waist at all, so the style is built on upper-body throws, clinches and control. It is contested only by men at the Olympics.

There is also folkstyle, the style used in American school and university wrestling. It allows leg attacks like freestyle but scores differently, rewarding riding time and control on top. It is not an Olympic style.

How a match works

A match is fought on a circular mat over two periods of three minutes, with a 30-second break between them. There are three ways to win:

• Fall (pin): hold both of the opponent's shoulders to the mat. The match ends immediately.
• Technical superiority: build a lead of 10 points or more, and the match is stopped.
• Points: if nobody is pinned and nobody reaches a 10-point lead, the wrestler with the most points after six minutes wins.

Points are scored on the same scale in both styles: 2 points for a takedown, 4 points for a throw that puts the opponent in danger, and 5 points for a high-amplitude throw. Reversals and exposure — turning the opponent's back towards the mat — also score. A match can also end by disqualification.

The contrast between the two styles is what makes wrestling interesting to watch. Freestyle is a game of shots: quick, low attacks at the legs, scrambles on the mat, and exposure turns that can score in bunches. Greco-Roman is a game of position and power: wrestlers fight for the clinch, and once one locks a body lock or a gut wrench, a single throw can be worth 4 or 5 points — or end the match outright. The same scoring scale applies in both styles, so the difference is not in the points available but in how wrestlers earn them.

Weight classes

Wrestlers compete in weight classes so that bouts are fair. At the Paris 2024 Olympics the classes were:

• Men's freestyle: 57, 65, 74, 86, 97 and 125 kg
• Women's freestyle: 50, 53, 57, 62, 68 and 76 kg
• Men's Greco-Roman: 60, 67, 77, 87, 97 and 130 kg

That made 18 wrestling events in total at Paris 2024: six men's freestyle, six women's freestyle and six men's Greco-Roman.

Tournament format

Each Olympic weight class is a single-elimination bracket with a repechage. Losing to one of the two eventual finalists is not the end of the road: those wrestlers go into the repechage, a second-chance bracket that decides the two bronze medals. The final decides gold and silver.

A brief history

Wrestling was part of the ancient Olympic Games, and it returned with the first modern Games in Athens in 1896. Men's freestyle wrestling has been an Olympic discipline since 1904, and women's freestyle joined the programme at Athens 2004. Greco-Roman, named after the wrestling of the ancient world, is the older of the two modern styles in its rules and traditions.

How to follow it

Watch the first minute of each period. In freestyle, the wrestler who lands the first clean leg attack usually controls the match; in Greco-Roman, the battle is for the clinch, because the first wrestler to lock a strong body lock can end the bout with one big throw. And remember the repechage: a wrestler who loses early can still fight back through the second-chance bracket to a bronze medal.

Weight classes change the feel of a match, too. The lighter weights tend to be the fastest and most technical, with scrambles and chain wrestling deciding bouts, while the heavyweights turn on single big throws and raw control. If you are new to the sport, start with a freestyle final in the middle of the range — 65 or 74 kg for the men, 57 or 62 kg for the women — where the balance of speed and power is at its best.