Wrestling. Wrestling is a combat sport involving grappling-type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. The sport can either be genuinely competitive or sportive entertainment. Wrestling comes in different types such as folkstyle, freestyle, Greco-Roman, catch / submission, judo, sambo and others. A wrestling bout is a physical competition, between two competitors or sparring partners, who attempt to gain and maintain a superior position. There are a wide range of styles with varying rules with both traditional historic and modern styles. Wrestling techniques have been incorporated into other martial arts as well as military hand-to-hand combat systems. The term wrestling is attested in late Old English, as wræstlunge. Main articles: History of wrestling and History of professional wrestling Wrestling represents one of the oldest forms of combat. The origins of wrestling go back 15,000 years through cave drawings. Babylonian and Egyptian reliefs show wrestlers using most of the holds known in the present-day sport. Literary references to it occur as early as the Old Testament and the ancient Indian Vedas. In the Book of Genesis, the Patriarch Jacob is said to have wrestled with God or an angel. The Iliad, in which Homer recounts the Trojan War of the 13th or 12th century BC, also contains mentions of wrestling. Indian epics Ramayana and Mahabharata contain references to martial arts including wrestling. In ancient Greece wrestling occupied a prominent place in legend and literature; wrestling competition, brutal in many aspects, served as the focal sport of the ancient Olympic Games. The ancient Romans borrowed heavily from Greek wrestling, but eliminated much of its brutality. During the Middle Ages wrestling remained popular and enjoyed the patronage of many royal families, including those of France, Japan and England. Early British settlers in America brought a strong wrestling tradition with them. The settlers also found wrestling to be popular among Native Americans. Amateur wrestling flourished throughout the early years of the North American colonies and served as a popular activity at country fairs, holiday celebrations, and in military exercises. The first organized national wrestling tournament took place in New York City in 1888. Wrestling has also been an event at every modern Olympic Games since the 1904 games in St. Louis, Missouri. The international governing body for the sport, United World Wrestling, was established in 1912 in Antwerp, Belgium as the International Federation of Associated Wrestling Styles. The 1st NCAA Wrestling Championships were also held in 1912, in Ames, Iowa. USA Wrestling, located in Colorado Springs, Colorado, became the national governing body of U.S. amateur wrestling in 1983. In Pharaonic Egypt, wrestling has been evidenced by documentation on tombs and Egyptian artwork. Greek wrestling was a popular form of martial art, at least in Ancient Greece. Oil wrestling is the national sport of Turkey and it can be traced back to Central Asia. After the Roman conquest of the Greeks, Greek wrestling was absorbed by the Roman culture and became Roman wrestling during the period of the Roman Empire. Shuai jiao, a wrestling style originating in China, which according to legend, has a reported history of over 4,000 years. Arabic literature depicted Muhammad as a skilled wrestler, defeating a skeptic in a match at one point. The Byzantine emperor Basil I, according to court historians, won in wrestling against a boastful wrestler from Bulgaria in the eighth century. In 1520 at the Field of the Cloth of Gold pageant, Francis I of France threw fellow king Henry VIII of England in a wrestling match. The Lancashire style of folk wrestling may have formed the basis for Catch wrestling, also known as catch as catch can. The Scots later formed a variant of this style, and the Irish developed the collar-and-elbow style which later found its way into the United States. A Frenchman is generally credited with reorganizing European loose wrestling into a professional sport, Greco-Roman wrestling. This style which was finalized by the 19th century and by then, wrestling was featured in many fairs and festivals in Europe. Greco-Roman wrestling and contemporary freestyle wrestling were soon regulated in formal competitions, in part resulting from the rise of gymnasiums and athletic clubs.