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Ancient Greek wrestling
wrestling in ancient Greece / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Greek wrestling was a grappling combat sport practiced by the Ancient Greeks. A wrestler's aim was to throw his opponent to the ground from a standing position. A point (or fall) was scored when a wrestler's back or shoulders touched the ground. Three points were needed to win a match. Holds were restricted to the upper body. like modern wrestling.
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Each city had a place for wrestling, called a palaestra. Some large cities had several palaestrae. Wrestlers trained and competed in the nude. The sport was the first added to the Ancient Olympic Games (in 708 B.C) that was not a footrace. Two ancient Greek wrestlers that are remembered today are Leontiskos of Messene and Milo of Croton. Leontiskos is infamous for winning the Olympics after breaking his opponent's fingers, and Milo is famous for winning five Olympic championships. Wrestling was a popular subject for Greek sculpture, painting, and literature.[1]