Australia hasn’t won a medal in wrestling since the last time the Olympics were in London, in 1948.

That year Dick Garrard won silver as a welterweight and Jim Armstrong took bronze in the heavyweight division.

That was our most prolific Olympic campaign on the mats; the only other medal an Australian has won was a bronze to Eddie Scarf in the 1932 light heavyweight competition.

Australia’s best hope is Russian-born heavyweight Ivan Popov, who won the 120kg Greco-Roman gold medal bout in Delhi at the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

Wrestling is as much an artform as a sport, and one with a long and rich history.

It is perhaps understandable that wrestling is the world's oldest competitive sport. It requires no equipment, just physical strength, flexibility and tactical nouse.

Wrestling dates back thousands of years, and was one of the staples - the main event in some cases - at the ancient Olympics.

Keen to draw on this tradition, the organisers of the early modern Olympics reintroduced the sport in the form of Greco-Roman wrestling, in which combatants use only their arms and upper bodies.

It proved popular enough for a second form of the sport - freestyle - to be introduced in 1904.

This discipline allows wrestlers to use their legs to push, lift or trip, and allows combatants to grab one another above or below the waist.

It can be spectacular, resembling judo in some of its moves.

While the two forms of wrestling differ in style, the object of each remains the same - to pin the opponent's shoulders to the mat.

If one competitor manages to pin the other for a full second, as counted by the judges, he wins the bout.

There was a time when the bout would continue until a competitor was pinned.

This gave Olympic sport one of its longest lasting events. In 1912, Estonia's Martin Klein met Finland's Alfred Asikainen in what was obviously an evenly matched bout - it lasted 11 hours and 40 minutes before Klein finally pinned Asikainen.

Klein was so exhausted after the match he was unable to compete for gold the following day.

These days competition takes place over two three-minute rounds.

The action takes place on a four-centimetre thick mat covered with vinyl on which two concentric circles are marked, one seven metres in diameter and another nine metres across.

The seven-metre wide circle is called the central wrestling area while the area between its outer edge and the extremities of the nine-metre circle is called the passivity zone, which serves to warn wrestlers they are nearing the edge of the competition zone.

The central wrestling area is coloured yellow while the passivity zone is red.

A new chapter in the sport's rich history was written in 2004 in Athens when women were allowed to compete for the first time. They take part in freestyle wrestling only.



A split of around 270 men and 70 women will compete in the wrestling competition in Beijing. Men compete in both freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling while women compete only in the freestyle form of the sport.

In both disciplines, men compete across seven weight divisions from under 55kg to 96-120kg. The women's divisions range from under 48kg to 63-72kg.

There are 14 medal events for men - seven in each weight division in either discipline - and four for women in the respective weight ranges.

Qualification for the London Games is via the 2011 world championships in Istanbul, continental championships and qualification tournaments.

Competition will run from August 5-12, days 9-16 of the Games program.


Australia is sending one competitor to London.

Victorian wrestler Farzad Tarash will compete in the under 66kg freestyle event.

Originally from Iran, Tarash, 25, moved to Australia when he was a child.

He helped to clinch Australia's participation in London with a silver medal at the Olympic qualifying tournament, then sealed his own spot on the team by defeating Matt D'Aquino at the Australian Championships.


Farzad Tarash - under 66kg Freestyle Wrestling

The basics

The aim of both Greco-Roman and freestyle wrestling is to pin the opponent's shoulders to the mat for long enough to be in control.

A match can also be won by moving 10 points ahead of an opponent, or by scoring more points than the opponent over the course of the bout.

If required, the bouts take place over two three-minute rounds, with a 30-second break between each round.

If the scores are tied at the end of the second round, or neither competitor has scored three points, the match is extended into three minutes of extra time.

If the deadlock is not broken after extra time, or each competitor has still scored fewer than three points, the referee, mat chairman and judge take a vote to determine the winner.

Wrestlers score points for a range of holds and throws. One point is awarded for a takedown, which throws the opponent off his feet, landing in front of the thrower. (In Greco-Roman wrestling, an attacking competitor must follow his opponent to the mat as he throws him).

Two points are awarded if a competitor turns his opponent's shoulders so his back is angled towards the mat - in what is known as the danger position.

Another point is awarded if a wrestler keeps his opponent in the danger position for five seconds or more.

Taking an opponent off his feet and into the danger position in one movement is worth three points.

Five points are awarded for throwing an opponent in the air, or for a grand amplitude - where the opponent's centre of gravity is lifted higher than the attacking wrestler's.

Points are also earned if an opponent is judged guilty of passivity. This involves failing to attempt to wrestle, or impeding the opponent from wrestling. A warning is given, and a second warning means a point is given to the opponent.

Similarly, wrestlers are given a warning for an illegal hold - such as twisting arms more than 90 degrees, applying armlocks to the forearm or grabbing the opponent's head with two hands - and a second warning incurs a penalty point.

Offences against fair play or which are judged as brutal result in immediate disqualification.

Wrestlers cannot pull their opponents' hair, ears or genitals, they are forbidden from pinching and biting, from twisting fingers and toes and are not allowed to kick, head-butt or strangle.

Touching an opponent's face between the mouth and eyebrows is also illegal, as is talking during the bout.

Competitors must have short fingernails and must shave on the day of the bout, unless they have established beards.

A competitor must not apply greasy substances to his skin and must not arrive at the mat in a sweaty condition. Long hair must be tied back.

The wearing of jewellery which may injure an opponent is illegal.

One of wrestling's more quirky rules requires competitors to wear a handkerchief tucked into their jockstraps.

This is a throwback to a time when handkerchiefs were needed to wipe away blood, saliva and the like, a task now generally handled by officials.


ExCel London, the exhibition and convention centre, is in London's Docklands. The wrestling competition will take place at North Arena 2 at ExCeL London arena.