Wrestling at the Summer Olympics
Wrestling had been contested at the Summer Olympic Games since the sport was introduced in the ancient Olympic Games in 708 BC. When the modern Olympic Games resumed in Athens in 1896, wrestling (in the form of Greco-Roman wrestling) became a focus of the Games, with the exception of the 1900 Summer Olympics when wrestling did not appear on the program. Freestyle wrestling and weight classes both made their first appearance in 1904. The women's competition was introduced in 2004.
Soviet and Russian results in men's freestyle wrestling
Tsarist Russia did not send freestyle wrestlers to the Olympics. The Soviet Union began competing in freestyle wrestling at the 1952 Summer Olympics. The Soviet Union boycotted the Olympics in 1984. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, most former Soviet republics competed as a single Unified Team in 1992, and competed separately thereafter.