Dynamics of quantity of the weight categories in Olympic Games on free-style wrestling

Abstract

Purpose: To analyze the dynamics of the number of weight categories of free-style wrestlers in the Olympic Games. Matherial and Methods: theoretical analysis and generalization of literary data, Internet sources, system-historical analysis, methods of mathematical statistics. Results: the article presents the results of the empirical researches of dynamics in number of the weight categories of athletes in Olympic Games on the free-style wrestling, beginning from Games of the I Olympiad (1896) to the Games XXXІ of the Olympiad (2016). It has been revealed that this dynamics has three rather independent periods: increases in number of weight categories (before Games XX of the Olympiad (1972)), stabilization (before Games XXVI of the Olympiad (1996)) and decrease in quantity of categories (from the Olympic Games XXVII up to the present), in connection with the increase in the number of weight categories in women's struggle. It has been established that from 28 held Olympic Games the free-style wrestling was in programs of 25 Olympic Games, and in competitions of fighters 198 sets of awards have been completed. Conclusions. The results of the analysis of the evolution and development trends of wrestling in the system of the international Olympic movement show that this sport occupies a worthy place and is progressing quite noticeably. Since the revival of the Olympic Games and the Games of the First Olympiad (1896), it has been a very important component of the global development of Olympic sports. It has been established that for the promotion, spectacle and promotion of sports as a sport in the world UWW makes changes and additions to the rules of the competition, including changes in the number of weight categories. It was found that at the beginning of the last century, this number varied quite chaotic, then gradually increased, reaching its peak already in the 70-90 s, and then it began to decrease in connection with the increase in the number of weight categories in women's struggle. All this objectively confirms the leading sporting struggle and contributes to maintaining a worthy status of the sport in the structure of modern Olympic sports.