Olmps

performance-enhancing drugs until 1967 – but they were still resoundingly beaten by the Soviets.When Ziegler discovered that some of his lifters had damaged their livers by taking twenty times the recommended dose of Dianabol, he abandoned his experiments.‘I lost interest in fooling with IQs of that calibre,’ he would later state. But the damage had been done.

Lowlights in the subsequent history of drug abuse and Olympic weightlifting have included the disqualification of the Bulgarian Izabela Dragneva shortly after winning the first ever women’s weightlifting gold in Sydney, eleven out of thirteen members of the Greek squad testing positive ahead of Beijing,and the withdrawal of the entire Bulgarian team from the same Games after similarly dismal test results in the run-in.

The doping record has naturally been acutely embarrassing for the IWF and the IOC. Unfortunately, there is only so much they can do about it. They can and have devised ever more sophisticated testing procedures but this has only led to an arms race with the shady men in white-coats, who have simply developed cleverer ways of avoiding detection.In recent years, the authorities have also twice given the sport a clean slate by changing the weight divisions (ahead of the Atlanta and Sydney Games), thus rendering all previous records obsolete. But they are up against a classic herd mentality, with lifters not unreasonably thinking that if they don’t use drugs they’ll lose out to those who do.

Weightlifting Goes to the Olympics

Weightlifting featured in the inaugural modern

Games in Athens but it was a very different animal from the contemporary sport.. For one thing, it was deemed a track and field event.. For another, there were no weight classes (which remained the case until Antwerp 1920).. Instead, there were just two events, open to all. . Launceston Elliot of Great Britain took gold in the one-hand lift but had to settle for silver in the two-hand- ed equivalent.. He lifted the same weight (111..5kg) as the winner, Denmark’s Viggo Jensen, but was adjudged to have done so with less style.. Clearly a sporting polymath, Jensen also won a couple of shooting medals and came fourth in the rope climb..

The sport was absent from the 1900 Games but reappeared at St Louis..Again there were just two events, this time the two-hand lift and an All Round Dumbbell Contest, which featured a bewildering nine different lifts..The fields were rather thin – a mere five athletes took part, four of whom won medals – which may explain why there was no weightlifting at the London or Stockholm Games of 1908 and 1912.. But the sport made a comeback at Ant- werp in 1920 and has remained on the Olympic menu ever since..

There was still some tinkering around with the formula to be done, however. . One-handed lifts continued to feature until Los Angeles 1932, when the competition switched to a three-lift format (snatch, clean-and-jerk and press, which involved hoisting the bar to the shoulders and waiting two seconds before raising it above the head with arm power alone), which endured until the press was dropped in 1972..

During the Olympic era, different regions of the world have dominated the sport in turn.. If the 1920s belonged to Italy,France and Central Europe, the 1930s and 1940s were bossed by Egypt and the USA..A large part of America’s success during this period can be attributed to Bob Hoffman of York, Pennsylvania, who recruited promising European immigrants to work in his oil burner business and trained them up in his gym. .The dramatic decline of the USA’s weightlifting fortunes after the Second World War coincided with the ascendancy of the Soviet Bloc, whose lifters claimed the lion’s share of Olympic medals between 1950 and the fall of the Berlin Wall.. Latterly, things have come nicely full circle, with the nations with the longest weightlifting pedigree – China plus Greece,Turkey and Bulgaria – again ruling the roost..

Suleymanoglu: the Pocket Hercules

The featherweight Naim Suleymanoglu is not just the greatest Olympic weightlifter of all time – on a pound for pound basis, he is one of the strongest men ever to have lived.Heaven knows what he would have achieved if he hadn’t puffed his way through fifty fags a day,‘to find my

inner peace,’ as he memorably put it.

THE INCOMPARABLE NAIM SULEYMANOGLU ABOUT To LIFT THE EQUIValent Of THREE-PLUS CHERYL COLES OVER HIS HEAD

Born in 1967 in Pitchar, Bulgaria, to a diminutive family of ethnicTurks (his father,a zinc miner,was 5ft tall,his mother,a hothouse worker,4ft 7in), Suleimanov – as he was originally called – was prodigiously strong from an early age. In his first international competition at the age of fourteen, he came within 2.5kg of the adult world record for combined lifts.The following year he went one better,breaking the first of 46 world records he would claim during his career. He would have been a shoo-in for gold at the LA Olympics had Bulgaria not joined the Eastern Bloc’s boycott.

The mid-1980s was a turbulent period for Bulgaria’s ethnicTurks, with mosques forcibly closed and the speaking ofTurkish banned. Suleimanov was tempted to defect while at a training camp in Melbourne in 1985 but told his would-be helpers that he would only do so if the government in Sofia tried to force him to take a non-Islamic name.As soon as he got back to Bulgaria, his passport was confiscated and reissued in the name

of Naum Shalamanov.

When he returned to Melbourne for the 1986 World Championship, he slipped his minders at a formal banquet,went to theTurkish consulate and asked for asylum.A few days later he was flown toTurkey in President Turgut Ozal’s private jet; he kissed the tarmac on arrival, securing his

status as a national hero.When the Bulgarian government later permitted over 300,000 ethnic Turks to leave the country as a direct result of the publicity generated by Suleimanov’s defection,he ascended to near deity.

Olympic rules stipulated that an athlete who changed nationality had to wait three years before competing in international tournaments,unless he obtained a waiver from his old nation.TheTurkish government happily coughed up $1m to the Bulgarians to obtain such a document in time for Suleymanoglu (as he re-spelled his name inTurkish style) to compete in the Seoul Games. It was money well spent.The little man cruised to gold, breaking world records in two of his three lifts in each discipline. His best lifts in both the snatch and the clean-and-jerk exceeded those racked up by Paul Anderson in winning the super-heavyweight gold in Melbourne 32 years earlier.Anderson had tipped the scales at 303 pounds;

Suleymanoglu weighed a mere 132.

Having initially intended to retire after the 1988 Games, Suleymanoglu was persuaded to think again by a crowd of a million which assembled at Ankara airport to greet him on his return.He went on to win featherweight golds at Barcelona and Atlanta.

WRESTLING

5-12 Augus 2012

ExCel Arena

Athletes: 344 | Golds up for grabs: 18

Olympic Presence

Men 1896 and 1904–present; women since 2004.

Olympic Format

two styles: Greco-Roman, in which holds beneath

the waist are forbidden, and Freestyle, in which they are allowed.. Women only compete in freestyle at the Olympics..

Current Contenders:

The top-ranked nations are Russia, France, Armenia

and Cuba in the Greco-Roman events; Azerbaijan, Iran, Rus- sia and Kazakhstan in the men’s freestyle; and China, Canada, Japan and Ukraine in the women’s freestyle..

Past Champions:

USA: 46 | USSR: 28 | Japan: 19 | Turkey: 16

Why Watch Wrestling?

Seoul, 1988. With thirty seconds to go in the final

of the Greco-Roman super-heavyweight competition, Rangel Gerovski, a twenty-stone Bulgarian, has a seemingly unassailable three-point lead over his Russian opponent,Aleksandr Karelin.. Suddenly, the giant Siberian pulls Gerovski over his knee; then, without releasing his grip, he hoists himself to his feet while turning his adversary upside down, flings himself backwards, twisting as

he falls, and slams the Bulgarian shoulders-first on to the ground.. Gold is secured in an instant..Welcome to Olympic wrestling..

Olympic wrestling may come across as a somewhat colourless affair to the unenlightened, particularly those brought up on the slapstick theatre of WWE or Mexican Lucha Libre..A bout, it must be admitted, can look rather like two blokes just rolling around in an undignified manner.. But it only appears that way because the competitors are so good at neutralising each other.. Put a body builder on the mat and he’d be flying out of the ring in seconds..

Wrestling may not be the most aesthetically pleasing event at the Games but it is certainly among the most primal, as befits what is perhaps the most ancient sport of all. .The high percentage of flesh-to-flesh contact ensures that the strength and guile of the protagonists are tested in the most direct way possible..And the nations which dominate the sport make a refreshing change from the usual suspects: wrestling is huge in Central and Western Asia, and countries ending in ‘-stan’ regularly feature in the medal tables..

The Story of Wrestling

Variations of wrestling are found among the Inuit,

the Maori and pretty much everyone in between, a universality that suggests that the sport has a deep place in the human psyche..

The importance of wrestling in prehistoric times is indicated by its presence in the mythologies of several cultures.. In the book of Genesis, Jacob wrestles a mysterious stranger in an all-night bout which ends only when the adversary touches ‘the hollow’ of Jacob’s thigh, wrenching his hip out of joint.. (This is clearly seen by the author(s) as foul play, suggesting that the contest was GrecoRoman in essence..)

According to Shinto legend, divine ownership of the Japanese archipelago was decided by the victory of the thunder god Takemikazuchi in a wrestling contest on a beach in Izumo (see Judo chapter)..And in Greek myth, Zeus took on the old Titan deities with his fellow Olympian gods and out-grappled his father Kronos for possession of the Universe..

BAS RELIEF OF ANCIENT GREEK WRESTLING

By the time the first city-based empires were established, wrestling had developed into a formalised sport.. Sumerian wall carvings from 3000bc depict refereed contests accompanied by music.. The Egyptians, for their part, elevated the sport into a science.. Of the six holds depicted in the tomb of Ptahhotep (c.. 2300bc), five are still used by Olympic athletes..

Wrestling appears to have made its Olympic debut in 708bc, and it remained an integral part of the ancient Games for the remainder of their existence, both in its own right and as part of the not-at-all-modern pentathlon..

The ancient Greeks had two main styles of wrestling: kalo pale (ground wrestling), somewhat reminiscent of modern free- style, in which a bout was ended by one participant’s submission; and orthia pale (upright wrestling), which appears to have been the dominant form and was closer to modern Greco-Roman wrestling.. It was conducted in a standing position and consisted of five rounds, each ending when one of the contestants was thrown to the floor..There were no time limits and no separate weight divisions..The naked participants wrestled on bare earth, which could become a sea of mud in wet weather..They arrived in the arena coated with olive oil (rather like modern Turkish oil wrestlers) and heavily dusted with powder..

By the Middle Ages, there were hundreds of folk wrestling styles in existence, ranging from Icelandic glima, in which contestants wear special leather harnesses to provide gripping points, to formats such as Cumberland wrestling, in which the action commences with the combatants locked in a bear hug..

During the late nineteenth century, two forms of wrestling evolved into internationally recognised professional sports..The

first, known as flat hand or French classical wrestling, in

which holds beneath the waist were banned, had been developed during the 1840s by a former Napoleonic soldier named Jean Broyasse (or ‘Exbroyat’ as he styled himself, as a professional strongman).. By the end of the century, the style had become extremely popular in France, Italy and the Austro-Hungarian and Russian empires..

In the English-speaking world,however,the dominant wrestling style was catch-as-catch-can, in which, as the name implies, competitors were allowed to perform holds with and to almost any part of the body.. Catch-as-catch-can was a well-established fairground attraction in the UK and USA, and was also adopted by universities throughout America..

By the eve of the sport’s Olympic debut, flat-handed wrestling had evolved into the Greco-Roman discipline and catch-as- catch-can into freestyle..

Game On: Wrestling Basics

In Greco-Roman wrestling it is forbidden to grasp

the opponent below the beltline or to use the legs ‘actively’ to perform any action.. In freestyle the first rule doesn’t apply, and legs can be used aggressively, though it is not permitted to lock them scissor-style around an opponent’s head, neck or body..That aside, the rules are broadly the same for each form..

Freestyle is the more dynamic form of wrestling, with the competitors spending a lot of time circling each other looking for an opportunity to dive in.. Greco-Roman wrestling is more obviously a matter of brute strength, but in both styles the maintenance of balance is essential: at times the action may appear to have frozen, but the wrestlers are always probing for small losses of equilibrium..

Wrestlers are not allowed to talk during a bout.. Neither may they pull each other’s hair, pinch, bite, head-butt, attack genitals, hold an opponent’s singlet, grab the sole of his foot or generally do

anything ‘with the intention of torturing the opponent’, as the rule book puts it. . Double Nelsons are strictly forbidden in women’s wrestling..

The Mat

The action takes place on a circular mat 9m in diam-

eter..The outer 1m of this area is known as the red zone.. Its function is to alert the wrestlers and officials that the action has moved to the margin of the legitimate wrestling area..

The region beyond the red zone is a 1..5m strip called the pro- tection area.. If a wrestler places a foot in the protection area, the bout is stopped, a point is awarded to his opponent and wrestling resumes in the centre of the mat..

In the middle of the central wrestling area is the central circle, which is 1m in diameter..Aside from forming the area of the mat where wrestling commences or recommences after a break, the central circle determines how the wrestlers are to disport themselves during curious set pieces called ordered holds, of which more later..

Dress Code

Each male competitor must be closely shaven or have

a beard of several months’ growth.. Moustaches, which are very popular in some of the sport’s dominant nations, are not mentioned in the official rules.. Competitors wear either blue or red singlets made of nylon or Lycra..The use of light, metal-free knee pads is permitted..Women are not allowed to wear under-wired bras.. Wrestlers are not permitted to apply greasy or sticky substances to their bodies..They must have cloth handkerchiefs with them at all times, to wipe away any escaped bodily fluids.. Fingernails must be cut very short..

The Officials

Each bout is officiated by a referee, a mat chairman

and a judge..The referee controls the action on the mat, using voice and whistle, and indicates the scoring of points with hand signals.. The judge keeps tally of the score and acts as a second pair of eyes,

alerting the ref if he feels he has missed something important..The mat chairman acts as arbiter in the event of a disagreement between referee and judge, and keeps time..

Structure of the Tournament

There are seven weight classes, ranging from 50kg

upwards.. Rather marvellously, there is now a limit for Olympic wrestlers of 120kg..

The competition for each weight division takes place on a sin- gle day.The first part of the contest is a series of knock-out rounds, delivering two finalists..The second is contested by everyone who was beaten by either of the finalists earlier in the competition..They are divided into two groups according to which finalist they lost to.. Each group then has a mini-tournament, with the winners claiming the two bronze medals awarded..

How a Bout is Won

The rules and scoring systems of Olympic wrestling

change with infuriating frequency, but a grasp of the following principles should allow you to appreciate what is going on..

If one wrestler manages to pin the other’s shoulders to the ground long enough for the referee to determine that they are indeed pinned, a fall is scored and they win the bout immediately..A wrestler also wins a bout if their opponent is disqualified, either through incurring three cautions or, in cases of egregious brutality, through instant dismissal..

In all other cases,a bout is the best of three rounds.These can be won in three ways.The first is technical superiority,in which one wrestler goes so far ahead in a round that they are declared its winner before two minutes have elapsed..The second is simply for a wrestler to score more points during its duration than their opponent..

The final way of winning a round, if the scores are level, is to be awarded it.. In Greco-Roman rounds, the judges use complex criteria based on cautions, high scoring manoeuvres and so forth.. In freestyle, if neither wrestler scores a technical point during the thirty-second round extension, the one who pulled the short straw