Six-time world champion: 1994, 96-98, 2000-01
History of Wrestling - FREE-STYLE
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Legitimate World Championship Tournaments
In 1904 the USA held the Olympic Games in St. Louis and had included wrestling but only Free-style. The problems of distance, expense and the lack of Greco-Roman meant that no European wrestlers travelled to the USA, so the competition was in effect a re-run of the American Championships.
The decisive year for Catch-as-catch-can in the drive to establish it as a world sport was1908; three major events took place that year in London, which confirmed the sport’s international status. The Alhambra Tournament which finished on February 1st, the Hengler’s Circus Tournament, which commenced in May 6th and lasted eight weeks and a couple of weeks later the Olympic Games.
The National Sporting Club, England’s most influential sporting body, had decided to put some order into the often farcical newspaper claims of ‘world’ or ‘British’ or ‘Empire’ champion by organising a strictly enforced and legitimate professional World Championship in three weight categories. Lord Lonsdale the fifth Earl of Lonsdale (1857/1944) was the President of the National Sporting Club and all the officials in the tournament were amateur; among them was A.H. Sutherland, Chairman of the National Amateur Wrestling Association. The event was to be held annually in the Alhambra Theatre in London and was the most important professional tournament in the drive to establish legitimate international Catch-as-catch-can championships, in the face of European pressure for Greco-Roman only. It was publicised as widely as the technology of the period would permit; Hackenschmidt, Yokio Tani (1881/1950) of Japan, Cherpillod of Switzerland and several other famous stars were invited but declined; basically because defeat would affect their lucrative music hall contracts.
As always happens in big tournaments there were some unexpected results, Peter Gotz (1887/1944) of Germany failed to make the weight at lightweight but placed second in the middleweights. Yamato Maida (1874/1944) from Hirosaki City in Japan, the best of the Japanese in Europe, and who was the man most responsible for the world wide spread of Judo was easily beaten by Henry Irslinger of Austria in the first round of the middleweight class. Despite his defeat he entered the heavyweight class and placed 2nd. This was the first legitimate international championship tournament in Catch-as-catch-can; wrestlers from eight countries competed, England, Scotland, Ireland, Austria, Germany, Italy, Switzerland and Japan and the full results were as follows,
10stone (63.5kgs)
1st Jack Carroll, Lancashire 2nd F. Tonge, Lancashire 3rd J. Bentley, Lancashire
12stone (76.2kgs)
1st Joe Carroll, Lancashire 2nd P Gotz, Germany 3rd H. Irslinger, Austria
Heavyweight
1st Jimmy Esson, Scotland 2nd Y Maida, Japan 3rd J. Stockley, Lancashire
Another huge tournament commenced in Hengler’s Circus five weeks after the Alhambra Tournament; it lasted eight weeks and had 135 competitors in four weight classes; soon after it finished the 1908 Olympic Games began. Catch-as-catch-can wrestling proved to be a great success with wrestlers from five countries winning medals; seven countries won medals in the Greco-Roman style. Aubert Coté of Canada won his country’s first ever medal in an international sporting tournament and became a national hero; such was his enthusiasm for wrestling that he had mortgaged his farm to pay his expenses.
Recognition
The 1908 Olympic Champions; seated are A.H. Sutherland, Chairman of the National Amateur Wrestling Association (of England) and W.H. Levy the Chief referee
When Queen Alexandria the Queen Empress of the British Empire presented the trophies to the winners in the White City Stadium, Catch-as-catch-can style wrestling was at last given its full accolade as an amateur international and Olympic sport. The full results in the Catch-as-catch-can or Free style wrestling competition at the historic 1908 Olympic Games competition were as follows,
Bantamweight (54kgs)
1st George Mehnert, USA 2nd William Press, GBR 3rd Aubert Coté, Canada
Featherweight (60.30kgs)
1st George Dole, USA 2nd James Slim, GBR 3rd William McKie, GBR
Lightweight (66.6kgs)
1st George de Relwyskow, GBR 2nd William Wood, GBR 3rd Albert Gingell, GBR
Middleweight (73kgs)
1st Stanley Bacon, GBR 2nd G. de Relwyskow, GBR 3rd Frederick Beck, GBR
Heavyweight (73+kgs)
1st George C. O’Kelly, IRL 2nd Jacob Gundersen, Norway 3rd Edmond Barrett, GBR
The 1908 Olympic Games was the first amateur international wrestling competition in which non-Europeans won medals, (the 1904 Olympiad cannot be considered for the reasons given above) and the organisers had at last made amateur, world and Olympic competitions accessible to the hundreds of thousands of college and high school wrestlers in the United States and Canada and the millions of traditional style wrestlers throughout Asia.
Olympic Recognition
Catch-as-catch-can had been officially recognised as an amateur sport in England in 1888 by the Amateur Athletic Association and was accepted as an Olympic sport due to the advocacy of the Reverend S. de Courcy Laffan of the British Olympic Association. He had argued vigorously for the inclusion of Catch-as-catch-can as a full Olympic sport at the Olympic conference held in Paris in 1914, just a few days before the First World War started.
Alexander Medved who was acclaimed by F.I.L.A. as "The Greatest Free style Wrestler of the 20th Century" attacking Wilfred Dietrich of West Germany at the 1972 Olympic Games.
Britain was never again able to repeat its Olympic success of 1908; most other countries began to support amateur sport for political and ideological reasons, which quickly ushered in the era of sham-amateurism, but the British political establishment held aloof believing in the Olympic ideal. There has been a change of heart in recent years, but probably for British wrestling it is too late, the numbers of practising wrestlers have seriously declined and the existence of Catch-as-catch-can wrestling as a viable sport, is threatened in the country of its birth.
MODERN DAY - CHAMPIONS FROM THE COMMONWEALTH
DANIEL IGALI - (CANADA) - 1999 - WORLD CHAMPION , 2000 - OLYMPIC CHAMPION
GUIVI (GIA) SISSAOURI - (CANADA)- 2001 WORLD CHAMPION, 1996 - OLYMPIC SILVER MEDAL
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Christine Nordhagen - Six-time world champion: 1994, 96-98, 2000-01 - 2004 Olympian
Tanya Verbeek - Women's Wrestling - Olympic SILVER medalist - 2004 Athens Games
