Olympics History
Track and field athletics aside, wrestling is the longest most continuously played sport in history! It even pre-dates the ancient Olympics, with records kept from 776BC onwards.
Wrestling has been a part of the modern Olympic Games since it launched in Athens in 1896. Only once, in 1900, has the sport failed to feature, but other than that, it has been a key part of the Games’ structure.
Until 1920, only one form of the sport was included, usually Greco Roman. But since then, both Freestyle and Greco have featured, with freestyle the form of wrestling practised in Great Britain.
The last British Olympic medal winner was Noel Loban at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. Before that you need to go back to Ken Richmond, who like Noel, won a bronze at the Helsinki Games in 1952.
Samuel Rabin in 1928, Andrew McDonald in 1924, and Philip Bernard and Peter Wright in 1920 also won bronze medals. Britain’s best performance in wrestling came at the 1908 Olympics, when we won 11 medals – three gold (George de Relwyskow, Stanley Bacon and George O’Kelly), four silver (de Relwyskow, William Press, James Slim and William Wood), and four bronze (William McKie, Albert Gingell, Edward Barrett and Frederick Beck).
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