Beach Wrestling to be included in Paris 2024 Olympics: Report

If the reports are to be believed the sport of Beach Wrestling will be included in Olympic fold from 2024 Paris Olympics. According to a report published on the official website of Bulgarian Wrestling Federation, the world body of the sport United World Wrestling (UWW) and International Olympic Committee (IOC) has agreed to include Beach Wrestling as medal sport in the 2024 Olympics in Paris. The report further elaborates that only women wrestling competitions will be included in the 2024 edition in the 4 weight categories.

The report claims that this move is completely in line with the vision of IOC and UWW President Nenad Lalovic to bring in gender parity in the sport of wrestling.

Currently, the Olympic wrestling competitions are played in 18 different categories – six each in men’s freestyle and Greco Roman and six in women. This means in 12 of the 18 competitions are for men’s categories and only 6 for women currently. But this new initiative of inclusion of beach wrestling in the Olympic fold will reduce the gap to 12-10.

It is worth noting that neither UWW or IOC has come out with an official statement on this new development.

UWW is promoting beach wrestling heavily since the last couple of years. The first world championships in beach wrestling were held in 2006 in Antalya, Turkey. In 2018, UWW introduced the Beach Wrestling World Series. The creation of the Beach Wrestling World Series contributes to the structuring and promotion of Beach Wrestling to include the sport in all official multi-sport events.

Senior-level competitions comprise of eight weight categories divided equally amongst men and women. The four men’s weight classes are 70kg, 80kg, 90kg, and +90kg, and the four women’s weight classes are 50kg, 60kg, 70kg, and +70kg.

Unlike Olympic wrestling, beach Wrestling matches consist of a single three-minute period.