RealTalkAJ

What Olympic sports do you enjoy watching the most?

Amateur Wrestling is the Olympic sport I enjoy watching the most.

It’s one of the oldest sports in the history of the world. It’s also one of the most violent sports in the Olympic Games. Maybe that’s not ideal to admit but it’s true. It’s the pinnacle of the sport considering there’s not a professional league for it.

And because it’s a tight knit community there’s a small degree of separation that brings you closer to caring about the success of its athletes. Especially being American.

The history of amateur wrestling

There’s been many pioneers that’s pushed the wrestling community forward.

Whether it was America or Russia the standard for tough wrestling keeps getting the standard raised.

Part of the history involves the greats and one that I wanted to share was on Aleksandr Karelin.

What makes wrestling so violent

It’s a clash of combat in being able to both control and expose your opponent.

The violence comes from the obvious struggle going on between the competitors.

It involves:

• picking up your opponent
• putting them to their back
• Staying more active than them

The list goes on but those are a few qualities that tend to be most attractive to viewers of the sport.

Wrestling not being a professional sport

There was a point in time where wrestling would be completed on a professional level with folkstyle athletes.

Unfortunately it didn’t last long.

However I would say it increased in popularity to the point where could reliably compete at what’s considered a pro level.

The tight knit community known as wrestlers