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The winner of the Gold Medal: Khasjimourat Gatsalov from Russia
The winner of the Silver Medal: Magomed Ibragimov from Uzbekistan
The winner of the Bronze Medal: Alireza Heidari from Iran
The winner of the Gold Medal: Buvaysa Saytiev from Russia
The winner of the Silver Medal: Gennadiy Laliyev from Kazakhstan
The winner of the Bronze Medal: Ivan Fundora from Cuba
The winner of the Gold Medal: Yandro Miguel Quintana from Cuba
The winner of the Silver Medal: Masuod Jokar from Iran
The winner of the Bronze Medal: Kenji Inoue from Japan
The winner of the Gold Medal: Artur Taymazov from Uzbekistan
The winner of the Silver Medal: Alireza Rezaei from Iran
The winner of the Bronze Medal: Aydin Polatci from Turkey
The winner of the Gold Medal: Cael Sanderson from United States
The winner of the Silver Medal: Eui Jae Moon from Korea, South
The winner of the Bronze Medal: Sazhid Sa
The winner of the Gold Medal: Elbrus Tedeyev from Ukraine
The winner of the Silver Medal: Kelly Jamill from United States
The winner of the Bronze Medal: Makhach Murtazaliev from Russia
The winner of the Gold Medal: Mavlet Batirov from Russia
The winner of the Silver Medal: Stephen Abas from United States
The winner of the Bronze Medal: Chikara Tanabe from Japan
"Beefy Greco-Roman wrestler Karam Ibrahim, a women's underwear manufacturer back in Egypt, won his country's first Olympic gold medal in 56 years on Thursday. Professional wrestling chiefs in the United States are already wooing Ibrahim to join their ranks and the gold will only increase his value. But Ibrahim has other business interests to consider. He runs the "Blue Gym" fitness club in Alexandria. "I also have a factory for clothes, girls'' clothes," the big man grinned. "Bras and underwear." Ibrahim took little more than three minutes to grapple Georgian Ramaz Nozadze to defeat in an unusually spectacular 96kg final. He raised a finger in triumph, kissed the mat and flipped his exultant coach to the floor before performing a perfect somersault. Carried around on the shoulders of another member of the Egyptian team, the national flag fluttering from his broad shoulders, the emotions flooded out as tears streamed down the cheeks of officials."
Read more at Bra manufacturer ends 56-year gold medal wait
The winner of the Gold Medal: Karam Ibrahim from Egypt
The winner of the Silver Medal: Ramaz Nozadze from Georgia
The winner of the Bronze Medal: Mehmet Ozal from Turkey
The winner of the Gold Medal: Alexandr Dokturishivili from Uzbekistan
The winner of the Silver Medal: Marko Yli-Hannuksela from Finland
The winner of the Bronze Medal: Varteres Samourgachev from Russia
The winner of the Gold Medal: Ji Hyun Jung from Korea, South
The winner of the Silver Medal: Roberto Monzon from Cuba
The winner of the Bronze Medal: Armen Nazarian from Bulgaria
The winner of the Gold Medal: Shasan Baroev from Russia
The winner of the Silver Medal: Georgiy Tsurtsumia from Kazakhstan
The winner of the Bronze Medal: Rulon Gardner from United States
The winner of the Gold Medal: Alexei Michine from Russia
The winner of the Silver Medal: Ara Abrahamian from Sweden
The winner of the Bronze Medal: Viachaslau Makaranka from Belarus
The winner of the Gold Medal: Farid Mansurov from Azerbaijan
The winner of the Silver Medal: Seref Eroglu from Turkey
The winner of the Bronze Medal: Mkkhitar Manukyan from Kazakhstan
The winner of the Gold Medal: Istvan Majoros from Hungary
The winner of the Silver Medal: Gueidar Mamedaliev from Russia
The winner of the Bronze Medal: Artiom Kiouregkian from Greece
"Rulon Gardner was in another Olympic wrestling upset his own.
One of the biggest stars of the 2000 Summer Games, Gardner was thrown to the mat in overtime Wednesday by Kazakhstan's Georgi Tsurtsumia and lost 4-1 in his Greco-Roman semifinal match. He will wrestle for the bronze medal later in the day.
Gardner was as surprised as anyone when Tsurtsumia somehow pulled off the winning 3-point move in their 264 1/2-pound (120kg) match, especially after spending much of the match visibly wearing down the younger wrestler.
Tsurtsumia looked upward at the scoreboard, still unsure for just a moment that he'd won, then jumped jubilantly into his coach's arms. Gardner seemed confused, too, searching for an explanation as he turned toward his corner and U.S. coach Steve Fraser.
Just like that, Rulon's remarkable comeback from a spate of injuries and misfortune was finished. Kneeling on the mat as Tsurtsumia celebrated, Gardner thought "It's over, it's done," he said. "Beyond that, I wasn't even tired.""
Read more atWrestling: Rulon Gardner Loses in Semis
The winner of the Gold Medal: Xu Wang from China
The winner of the Silver Medal: Gouzel Maniourova from Russia
The winner of the Bronze Medal: Kyoko Hamaguchi from Japan
Verbeek claims silver for Canada
Canadian wrestler Tonya Verbeek won a silver medal in the 55-kilogram Olympic division Monday, beaten 6-0 by world champion Saori Yoshida of Japan in the final.
The winner of the Gold Medal: Kaori Icho from Japan
The winner of the Silver Medal: Sara McMann from United States
The winner of the Bronze Medal: Lise Legrand from France
The winner of the Gold Medal: Saori Yoshida from Japan
The winner of the Silver Medal: Tonya Verbeek from Canada
The winner of the Bronze Medal: Anna Gomis from France
The winner of the Gold Medal: Irini Merleni from Ukraine
The winner of the Silver Medal: Chiharu Icho from Japan
The winner of the Bronze Medal: Patricia Miranda from United States
Verbeek to wrestle for the gold
Canada is guaranteed at least a silver medal in women's wrestling after Tonya Verbeek advanced to the final in the 55-kilogram division at the Summer Olympics on Monday.
"Women's wrestling made its Olympic debut Sunday. And for all those whose minds are in the gutter, there was no mud and no Jell-O involved.
This was the straight stuff, complete with takedowns, escapes and reversals. That's exactly what the participants wanted everyone to notice.
"The Olympic Games give us a platform where we can speak to other countries and to U.S. citizens," said Patricia Miranda, one of four U.S. women wrestlers here in Athens. "We get a medium where we are able to say: 'Hey look at us. Is this a sport?'"
It sure looks like one, even though many of us have been conditioned to respond: "Women wrestling? Gross!" And then visions of wrestlers who look like Roseanne Barr right after an Oreo binge dance in our heads.
These ladies have heard it all before. They have been insulted, put down and flat out told no along the way."
Read more at Women's wrestling makes debut without the Jell-O
"Toccara Montgomery's opening match in the first Olympic women's wrestling tournament couldn't have been much tougher. Now, one of the world's best wrestlers is likely to leave Athens without a medal.
Montgomery, a former world wrestler of the year, drew five-time world champion Kyoko Hamaguchi of Japan in her opening pool match Sunday at 158 1/2 pounds (72kg)and lost 8-4, meaning there is almost no chance she can medal.
The other three U.S. wrestlers all won, with 105 1/2-pounder (48kg) Patricia Miranda winning twice, and Sara McMann and Tela O'Donnell once each against tough opponents.
Miranda, a 2003 world runner-up, is all but sure of making the medal round after rallying to beat former world champion Li Hui of China 8-5 and Larisa Oorzhak of Russia 7-3. Miranda needed only to beat Caripa Mayelis of Venezuela later Sunday to advance from her four-woman pool.
Montgomery's loss was her third in her last four matches to Hamaguchi, a tough-looking and technically sound wrestler who is the daughter of longtime Japanese pro wrestling star Heigo "The Animal" Hamaguchi."
Read more at Montgomery Loses First Wrestling Match
" The four Americans competing in the first Olympic women's freestyle wrestling tournament want something bigger than gold medals.
They want fans -- and even their fellow athletes -- to view what they do as legitimate.
"There's a long way to go, even within our own sport, to gain respect. This is how it starts," said Stanford graduate Patricia Miranda, who begins competition in the 105-pound class Sunday. "We want people to look at us as more than a joke. To see more than mud wrestling. To see this as a legitimate sport.
"We want it to be something where people might turn on the TV for more than two minutes, and see the pain and the joy we see in every sport."
Getting past the snickers and into at least the Olympic mainstream has been a long, tough road for women's wrestling.
Tela O'Donnell, a 121-pounder from Homer, Alaska, recalled that after being barred from competing in junior high school, she addressed the local school board and wrote letters. Eventually, she was allowed to wrestle in practice but never in competition."
Read more at Female wrestling pioneers ready for debut
"Toccara Montgomery is neither ashamed nor embarrassed about the imprisoned father who will be an ocean away when she becomes one of the first women to wrestle in the Olympics.
"I always was a daddy's girl and I always will be a daddy's girl," Montgomery said, her voice filled with emotion. "He's always been a driving force in my life."
Paul Montgomery of Cleveland was sentenced to 33 years to life for a 1998 double murder and is not eligible for parole until 2032 - the year his daughter will turn 50.
Toccara occasionally visits her father at an Ohio prison, not all that far from where she attends classes and wrestles at Cumberland (Ky.) College. But she insists she doesn't need her father's physical presence to know he is with her."
Read more at Even at Olympics, U.S. wrestler leans on incarcerated father for support
"Cael Sanderson was calmly answering all the usual questions a wrestler gets a few days before his Olympics debut, when one hit him with the unexpectedness of an opponent's five-point throw.
Does the most successful college wrestler ever consider himself the face of an inexperienced but eager U.S. Olympic freestyle team?
Immediately, a frown creased a face that, at least so far, has displayed only relaxed confidence.
"Am I going to get teased now from these guys," Sanderson said Monday, glancing up and down a table where six teammates tried to contain their laughter. "I am one of seven people ... trying to do the best I can here at the Olympics."
Sanderson, 25, is the best-known member of the U.S. freestyle wrestling delegation, but he doesn't equate that to stardom in a sport where even the best athletes compete in relative obscurity except during an Olympics."
Read more at Inexperience may hamper U.S. wrestlers
"The early line from Athens says that America's four women wrestlers will be our new darlings of these Games.
"Darling" is an unfamiliar term for Patricia Miranda (48 kilograms or 105.5 pounds), Tela O'Donnell (55 kg, 121), Sara McMann (63kg, 138.75) and Toccara Montgomery (72kg, 158.5), who over the years have been called "insane," "attention-grabbing," "boy-crazy," and, the ever-popular "dyke."
What the people who really didn't like them said was worse. But now women's wrestling is a recognized Olympic sport for the first time, and years of battling males, school boards, league rules, arrogance, ignorance and even resistance from within their own wrestling hierarchy will be forgotten when they compete under the Olympic banner on Aug. 22 and 23rd."
Read more at Quartet of women grapplers could become fan favorites in U.S.
"There could be a medal bonanza for Canada when women's freestyle wrestling makes its Olympic debut in Athens.
"We have a very strong team," said Todd Hinds, the Canadian women's assistant coach. "We've got four medal hopefuls - four true medal hopefuls."
Six-time world champion Christine Nordhagen of Valhalla Centre, Alta., the most successful female wrestler in the world, leads a Canadian contingent that also includes Lyndsay Belisle of Hazelton, B.C., Tonya Verbeek of Beamsville, Ont., and Viola Yanik of Saskatoon."
Read more at Lady grapplers set for Games
"Russian wrestler Alexander Karelin, one of the greatest Olympians ever, retired shortly after losing the gold in Sydney to unheralded American Rulon Gardner. Karelin's departure precluded any Athens rematch -- which is just fine with Gardner.
"I'm not disappointed at all that he's not here," Gardner said with a wide smile Monday at a news conference for the six-man U.S. Greco-Roman wrestling team. "I have one goal ahead of me this year -- to win a gold medal."
Gardner and his teammates arrived in Athens with high expectations: They want to bring home four medals, and hope for a top 10 finish from everyone on the team. They're particularly pumped by the idea of competing in Greece, the birthplace of the Olympics and their sport."
Continue reading Gardner leads U.S. wrestling hopes
""Two-time world champion Saori Yoshida is the favorite in the 55kg (121 lbs) division for Athens. She defeated American Tina George in the finals at both the 2002 and 2003 World Championships, but George won't be in Athens, as she lost to Tela O'Donnell at the U.S. Trials. Yoshida has never lost to a wrestler from outside of Japan, winning all 15 of the international competitions she has entered......"
Read more at Saori Yoshida favorite in Olympic Female Wrestling
"Once upon a time, there was an old woman who lived alone except for a small light that followed her around like a pet. The people of the unhappy village nearby shunned her -- all except a young girl who was drawn to the woman's home by the warmth and music of the light.
Olympic wrestler Tela O'Donnell used to fall asleep listening to this story as a little girl. She lived alone with her mother, Claire, in a log cabin in the woods that her mother built by herself through the trial-and-error method. Claire O'Donnell called it their "nest."
Tela's mother was a wonderful storyteller. She couldn't read a simple picture book without leaping to her feet to act out each character. This was not surprising -- Claire O'Donnell had been trained in a high-modernist school of mime in Paris as well as formal Japanese Noh theater in Tokyo, before leaving it all behind for the forests of Kachemak Bay.
The details of the old woman's story came easily each night as Claire made them up.
It was her own story. Hers and Tela's.
Olympic athletes come from all walks of life. But none of them has a story like Tela O'Donnell's."
Read more at Raising an Olympian .
"Don't bother telling Tela O'Donnell any jokes about women wrestlers. After seven years in the sport, she has already heard them all.
"Sometimes they're not too classy with their comments, which is unfortunate,'' the 21-year-old wrestler said. "They always say something about mud-wrestling. Somebody recently said some pretty unnecessary comments and I thought, 'Why would you say that?'"
Let them have their cheap laughs. The final punchline belongs to O'Donnell -- she's going to wrestle in the Olympics. The woman from Homer, Alaska, is going to the land of Homer, along with three other American women wrestlers -- Patricia Miranda, Sara McMann and Toccara Montgomery. The U.S. women stand an excellent chance at medaling -- three of the four Olympians won silver medals at last year's world championships."
Read more at Women's Wrestling makes Olympic Debut.
"It's a long story, but Larry Kristoff probably became an Olympic wrestler because his grade school lacked a gymnasium.
"I lived on the Giant City blacktop," Kristoff said. "The schools I went to, we didn't have a gym. I never learned to play basketball.
"When I went to high school, all the kids went out for basketball. I didn't even know how to bounce a ball. There was nothing to do in the winter time."
Reid Martin, a coach at Carbondale high school in 1960, recognized that Kristoff and several other good athletes were wasting their talents during the winter months.
Martin decided to form a wrestling team, an act that had a profound effect on Kristoff. A senior at the time, Kristoff, a heavyweight, decided to give the sport a try -- a decision that led to two Olympic berths, nine World Games appearances and a stellar coaching career. "
"Wrestler Tela O'Donnell lives in a dorm room at the U.S. Olympic Training Center, a long way from home.
Home is Homer, Alaska, where gender barriers are as rare as sunshine in winter.
"There's nothing you can't do," said Tela's mom, Claire O'Donnell.
Including be a woman and wrestle.
Tela has made Homer, a place where the sun shines five hours a day in winter, feel warm all over. She's the first Summer Olympian in Homer's history, making the 2004 Olympic team in late May, about six weeks before fellow Homer resident Stacey Borgman made the Olympics in rowing. Women's wrestling makes its Olympic debut in Athens."
Continue reading A surprise from Alaska.
"With the Athens Olympics fever at its pitch all over the world, Indian qualifiers are also practicing hard. There are great expectations from the Indian freestyle wrestling team, qualifying after a gap of 12 years. The seven-member team is currently working out at the National Institute of Sports in Patiala.
The seven Athens-bound wrestlers, including six freestyle and one Greco-Roman specialist makes it the biggest Indian wrestling contingent for the Olympics.
The only Bronze medal India bagged in wrestling was in 1952, and now the boys here are confident to repeat the feat. Palwinder Singh Cheema, a member in Indian Olympic wrestling team said, "As we have won medals recently in Asian and Commonwealth Games, the Olympics is our next objective."
Continue Reading Indian wrestling team gets ready for Athens at Patiala.
"Stanford grad Miranda hopes to grab gold medal in Athens before entering Yale Law School
When her career began way back in middle school, Olympic freestyle wrestler Patricia Miranda learned to cope with all the rest of what came with the sport. She convinced her father that her grades wouldn't suffer, and that neither would she.
She gradually came to grips with the fact that the sport hurt, and featured a level of aggression she had never encountered. She reconciled herself that on school teams she would have to compete against boys and, eventually, men because there were no other girls or women willing to try.
There were taunts, of course, and Miranda learned to dismiss them. All except one -- the accusation that she was a joke."
Read more at Wrestling with her Olympic Dreams.
"When Toccara Montgomery first became intrigued with wrestling as a sophomore in high school, her goal was to eventually be good enough to stop losing matches against boys.
Now the 21-year-old senior at Cumberland College, in Williamsburg, Ky., doesn't mind saying she often visualizes herself at a medals ceremony in the Summer Olympics in Athens.
"It's been playing back in my head, me standing on the podium, with my medal on, maybe holding flowers and just the anthem playing with the flag over my head," she said recently in Cleveland, her hometown. "It's something I'm looking forward to."
Montgomery, one of four members of the first U.S. Olympic women's wrestling team, is widely considered to be a strong contender for gold. She won a championship in the 2003 Pan American Games. She has lost some matches but also has won at least once over each of her main competitors in international events for her weight class, up to 158.5 pounds.
"It's really a tough weight class, but I feel confident. We'll see," she said."
Continue reading Wrestler Toccara Montgomery can visualize gold medal presentation
'Olympic champion Rulon Gardner won his first Greco-Roman international title in three years on Saturday, capturing the 264 1/2-pound class at the Pytlasinski wrestling tournament in Warsaw.
Gardner defeated 2002 world bronze medalist Yuri Patrikeev of Russia 2-0 in the finals. In the semifinals, he beat 2003 world bronze medalist Mirian Giorgadze of Georgia 3-1.
Gardner is trying to become the first American to win two Olympic gold medals in Greco-Roman wrestling. The tournament was the last major tuneup before the Athens Olympics.'
Introduction to Wrestling at the Olympics. It includes Olympic Wrestling history as well as a preview for Athens.
'The sport, which utilizes two distinctly different disciplines featuring seven weight classes in each, and now involves both male and female combatants, has evolved considerably since oil-covered grapplers first appeared on the very first Olympic stage in 776 B.C. in Athens....
The 63 kg weight class should be hotly contested with Japan's Kaori Icho being the favorite. Icho is the two-time defending World Champion, and she should see considerable competition from Russia's Alena Kartacheva, who was the 2002 World Champion at 59 kg. Japan's Kyoko Hamaguchi is the favorite at 72 kg, as she has five World Championships to her credit.'
Olympic gold medalist Rulon Gardner lost a toe to frostbite two years ago but will still compete in Athens this year.
Wrestling at the Athens Olympics will take place between 22nd - 28th of August at the Ano Liossia Olympic Hall.
Can Rulon Gardner do it again, without having to beat Russian super wrestler Alexander Karelin? Gardner has had a series of mishaps and calamities since pulling off his "miracle on the mat" upset of Karelin in Sydney, but now looks to be healthy and a gold medal contender again. Otherwise, U.S. freestyle and Greco-Roman teams don't look especially strong, but Americans could get a medal count boost from a talented four-member women's team. Armen Nazarien (132 pounds, 60 kg) of Bulgaria tries for a third gold and Russian star Bouvaisa Saitiev (163 pounds, 74 kg) looks to rebound from an upset in Sydney to American gold medalist Brandon Slay; it was Saitiev's only loss in major international competition since 1995.
There are two types of Wrestling at the Olympics, Greco-roman (men only) and Free style (men and women). Over both types of wrestling there are 18 Gold medals up for grabs. Medal winners and all results will be updated to this page as they happen (click on the links listed below) - in the mean time read all the latest Wrestling News in our Olympic Wrestling News Archives.
