Amateur Wrestling Enjoys Long and Rich Tradition in United States
“Once you’ve wrestled, everything else in life is easy, “U.S. wrestler says
By Howard Cincotta
USINFO Special Correspondent
Washington “Mention “wrestling” and most Americans think first of the highly publicized spectacles featuring such characters as Hulk Hogan and The Rock. Even its most devoted fans, however, recognize that “professional “wrestling today is purely escapist entertainment that has nothing to do with the real sport that flourishes across the country among youths.
Amateur wrestling in the United States has a long and rich tradition. Moreover, the United States has developed a number of remarkable athletes and champions in the sport of freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling, and continues to be a powerful national competitor in the international arena.
At the 2006 World Championships in Guangzhou, China, the U.S. team finished third, after Russia and Iran, by winning nine medals “four in men’s freestyle, three in men’s Greco-Roman and two in women’s freestyle. Two American athletes won their first World Championships: Joe Warren (Greco-Roman, 60 kilos) and Bill Zadick (freestyle, 66 kilos). Bill’s brother, Mike, is competing in the 2007 Takhti Cup in Bandar Abbas, Iran. (See related article.)
ORIGINS
Wrestling already was a popular activity among many Native American tribes when the first waves of European settlers arrived in North America with their own sports traditions. Wrestling also flourished on the American frontier in different rough-and-ready varieties; it became a fixture at holiday celebrations and county fairs.
To the extent that any particular style prevailed on the 18th- and 19th-century frontier, it was the English “collar-and-elbow “approach in which opponents began in the standing position, each with one hand behind the other’s neck, and their second hand on the opponent’s elbow. This opening position prevented “bull rushes “that could knock down the opponent and opened up chances for skill as well as strength moves, according to Bob Dellinger, former director of the U.S. National Wrestling Hall of Fame in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
Although the first U.S. president, George Washington, was a champion wrestler in his youth, Abraham Lincoln is the public figure most celebrated for his wrestling prowess. Lincoln, 1.9 meters tall and a man of exceptional strength, won his most famous bout against the local champion and reputed bully Jack Armstrong in New Salem, Illinois, in the early 1830s.
The first organized wrestling tournament on U.S. soil took place in 1888, sponsored by the U.S. Amateur Athletic Union, and the United States won its first gold medals in wrestling at the 1904 and 1908 Olympic Games. By the 1920s and 1930s, college-based wrestling programs began to dominate the sport, notably at the big Midwestern universities in Iowa and Oklahoma.
Dan Gable’s intense focus on conditioning, training, and commitment now exemplifies the key elements in the American approach to wrestling, according to Gary Abbott of USA Wrestling, the official national governing body for the sport in the United States, located in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Gable suffered a single defeat while winning 100 consecutive matches and two national collegiate championships while at Iowa State University. Gable competed in the 1972 Olympic Games, and despite a knee injury, won a gold medal at 68 kilos without yielding a single point. He then went on to establish an unmatched coaching record at the University of Iowa, where his teams won more than 350 matches and 15 national titles.
“Once you’ve wrestled, “Gable once said, “everything else in life is easy.”
Besides Gable, several other American athletes have achieved wide recognition on the international stage. Bruce Baumgartner, the dominant heavyweight American wrestler in the 1980s and 1990s, won four Olympic medals (two golds, a silver and a bronze).
John Smith, wrestling at 62 kilos, won a string of international championships, including Olympic gold medals in 1988 and 1992.
Kevin Jackson, at 84 kilos, won three freestyle world championships and a gold medal at the 1992 Barcelona, Spain, Olympics. Cael Sanderson, also 84 kilos, broke Gable’s record of 100 successive collegiate victories before going on to win gold at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece.
U.S. WRESTLING TODAY
Nationally, wrestling continues to grow in popularity each year in the United States, especially at the high school level, according to Abbott. At the college level, national championships no longer are the exclusive preserve of a few Midwestern universities.
For a period, the number of collegiate wrestling programs declined, due in part to the impact of a 1972 law known as Title IX, which bans discrimination in education and requires “equal athletic opportunity for members of both sexes. “Some schools dropped wrestling rather than bear the cost of adding a women’s component. Overall, however, opportunities for women athletes expanded under Title IX and women’s freestyle wrestling is now a recognized national, international, and Olympic sport.
From the 2007 Takhti Cup to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, American wrestlers are looking to the future with enthusiasm, while building on the discipline, skills, and values of their sport’s tradition.
For more information, see American History and U.S. Life & Culture.
More information on U.S. wrestling programs is available on the Web site of USA Wrestling.
(USINFO is produced by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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