ABOUT

If the Olympic Games are a history of mankind, wrestling is the prologue. When the ancient Games of the Olympiad were born, wrestling already was an ancient game. Widely recognised as the world's oldest competitive sport, wrestling appeared in a series of Egyptian wall paintings as many as 5000 years ago. When the Games began in 776 BC, more than two millenniums later, it included wrestling, and, in the years that followed, wrestling featured as the main event.

The sport would return in a similar role when the Olympic Games returned after a 1500-year absence in 1896. Organisers, seeking direct links to ancient times, found a natural in the sport that had enjoyed popularity across much of the ancient world, from Greece, Assyria and Babylon to India, China and Japan. They resurrected Greco-Roman wrestling, a style they believed to be an exact carryover from the Greek and Roman wrestlers of old.

In Greco-Roman wrestling, the wrestlers used only their arms and upper bodies to attack. They could hold only those same parts of their opponents. It worked nicely from a historical perspective, but another breezier style was sweeping across Great Britain and the United States by then. Known as "catch as catch can", it had become standard fare - and popular professional entertainment - at fairs and festivals in both countries.

In 1904, the Olympic Games added the second wrestling event and called it "freestyle". Now, wrestlers could use their legs for pushing, lifting and tripping, and they could hold opponents above or below the waist.

Chinese Wrestling Association

Founded: 1956
Headquarters: Beijing
FILA Member since: 1954

President: CUI Dalin
Secretary-General: QIAN Guangjian

Add: A14 Tiantandongli Zhongqu, Beijing 100061, China
Tel: (8610) 67021321
Fax: (8610) 67020341
E-mail:zhangxm@sports.cn

Commissions:
Coaches Commission
Judges Commission
Scientific Research Commission
Junior Training Commission
Discipline and Doping Control Commission
Press Commission
Marketing Commission
Chinese-style Wrestling Commission

Main events organized by CWA:
- National Championships
- National Youth Championships
- National Champions Tournament

Brief Introduction
A national mass sports organization and member of the All-China Sports Federation. Its highest organ of power is the National Congress, and the secretariat is in charge of the administration work.
The main tasks of the CWA are, in accordance with the nation's general and specific policies and principles for sports, to give publicity to the sport of wrestling among the people and raise the technical level; promote international activities and technical exchanges; organize national competitions, scientific research and training courses for wrestlers, coaches and judges at different levels; draw up and implement the plans and rules for efficient management of coaches and wrestlers; select and recommend national wrestlers and coaches for intensified training for major national and international tournaments.

Link: International Federation of Associated Wrestling Styles (FILA)

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