British Wrestling
We are very excited to be celebrating 120 years of the British Wrestling Association
Founding of the British Wrestling Association (BWA)
The British Wrestling Association (BWA) was founded in January 1904. Marking a significant milestone in the history of amateur wrestling in the UK, the BWA was formed with the intention of Great Britain competing at the 1908 London Olympics.
Inaugural British Wrestling Championships
The British Wrestling Association organised its first British Wrestling Championships. This event set the precedent for future national competitions and helped to establish amateur wrestling as a competitive sport in the UK.
Great Britain Wrestlers compete in the 1908 London Olympics
Wrestling was represented at the London Olympics by a huge team of 53 Great Britain athletes, winning 10 medals; 3 Gold medals, 4 Silver and 3 Bronze in the sport.
British Wrestling Championships popularity grows
The British Wrestling Championships of 1910 saw a significant increase in participants and spectators, reflecting the growing popularity of the sport. This competition further solidified the event as a key fixture in the British wrestling calendar.
Great Britain send a team of 12 Wrestlers to the 1912 Stockholm Olympics
A team of 12 including Percy Cockings, Edward Barett and brothers Edgar and Stanley Bacon travelled to Stockholm to compete for Great Britain.
Longest Olympic Wrestling Match contested
The Stockholm Olympics saw the longest ever wrestline match, when Estonia's Martin Klein and Finland's Alfred Asikainen competed in the middleweight division. Their bout lasted an amazing 11 hours and 40 minutes.
British Wrestling Championships recommence
After a pause in annual competitions due to World War I, the British Championships returned.
Freestyle added to Olympic wrestling programme
Both Freestyle and Greco formats added to Olympic schedule
Great Britain Wrestling team achieve 2 Bronze medals at the Antwerp Olympics
Philip Bernard and Peter Wright both achieve Olympic bronze medals.
Consecutive Olympic medal-winning achievement for Great Britain
Andrew McDonald continues strong Great Britain performance in wrestling with another Olympic bronze medal performance.
New weight categories are added to the British Wrestling Championships
The 1925 British Wrestling Championships, held in Birmingham, marked a significant development with the introduction of additional weight categories. This change aimed to provide more opportunities for wrestlers of different sizes to compete fairly.
Hat-trick in Olympic wrestling medals for Great Britain
Samuel Rabin's bronze medal performance continues recent Great Britain Olympic performances, with 3 consecutive Olympics delivering medals.
A Sterling effort by Great Britain's Wrestlers at the inaugral British Empire Games
The first ever British Empire Games (later Commonwealth Games) saw English Wrestlers take silver in all weight classes. Home advantage of the Canada-held competition was in evidence as Canada took gold in all weight classes.
Scotland delivers Home Nations success at the British Empire Games
Edward Melrose of Scotland took Gold medal place in the Bantamweight class in London's British Empire Games
British Empire Games sees another strong Great Britain team compete
Great Britain team celebrate 2 Bronze medals for Arnold Parsons and Ken Richmond.
Ken Richmond wins Olympic medal in Helsinki
Ken Richmond repeats his achievement from the British Empire Games 2 years previously, by taking bronze again, this time in the Helsinki Olympics.
Ken Richmond add Commonwealth Gold to his Olympic achievement.
Following on from his Olympic achievement in Helsinki 2 years previous, Ken Richmond becomes first English Commonwealth Wrestling champion. The Great Britain Team also achieve wrestling silver (Herb Hall) and 2 Bronze medals (Ray Myland and Harry Kendall)
Gold alludes Great Britain in Cardiff at the British Empire & Commonwealth Games
Scottish duo George Farquhar and Alastair Duncan achieve silver medals with England's Albert Asen and Ray Myland both achieving bronze.
England returns to gold-medal winning ways at Commonwealth Games
Tony Buck wins gold at the Australia Commonwealth Games, where the home nations bring home 6 medals (5 for England, 1 for Scotland).
Hat-trick of bronze medals for Albert Aspen
Albert Aspen continues to perform well at Commonwealth Games as England take 2 bronze medals and Scotland's Wallace Booth goes one better with silver.
3 Bronze medals for England at the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh
Denis McNamara, Ron Grinstead and Terence Robinson all feature on the podium in Edinburgh
Joe Gilligan
The Aspen dynasty begins
Albert Aspen's son (aged 19) follows in his father's footsteps with a bronze medal at Featherweight class.
Great Britain take gold down under
Aspen Junior takes Commonwealth Gold at Bantamweight in Brisbane.
Noel Loban wins first Olympic medal in over 30 years.
Noel Loban becomes first British Olympic Wrestling medal winner since Ken Richmond in 1952.
Aspen Junior hat-trick completes emulation of his father
Aspen Junior wins a Commonwealth medal for the third-consecutive Games, emulating his father's achievements.
Opening of The Olympic Wrestling Academy
The Olympic Wrestling Academy was officially opening by Sebastian Coe, then Vice Chair of the Sports Council.
First-ever Women's wrestling world championships
The first ever Women's World Championship took place in Norway. 48 female wrestlers competed in 9 weight categories. Competitors from France won 4 weight categories, Norway 3 and Belgium 1 in the inaugral competition.
Noel Loban returns for another Commonwealth medal
8 years after winning gold, Noel Loban wins a silver medal for Great Britain
Women's wrestling enters the Olympic wrestling arena
The first Olympic Women's competition featured 4 weight classes. 11 countries competed with Japan, Ukraine and China taking gold medals.
Wrestling returns to the Commonwealth games, with GB success.
The Delhi Commonwealth games provided 4 medals including Gold for Myroslav Dykun.
Wales celebrates 1st Commonwealth medal
Craig Pilling's Bronze medal provided Wales with their first Commonwealth wrestling medal. Held in Glasgow, the home nations won 8 medals.
Wales continues Commonwealth success
Kane Charig and Curtis Dodge treble Wales' Commonwealth medals with a Silver and Bronze taking Wales all-time Commonwealth medal haul to 3. England returned from the Gold Coast with 3 Bronze medals.
England celebrates treble-winning Birmingham Commonwealth Games
England matches Gold Coast performance to secure a further 3 Bronze medals at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games.