||Original. Mounted on acid free archival linen.
L'Hippodrome - Grand Chapionnat du Monde des Luttes Libres.
This is a great poster advertising free-style wrestling in France, and was created by the artist Georges Redon.
Free style wrestling got its start in Lancanshire, England, and was first known as "catch-as-catch-can" wrestling. In catch-as-catch-can wrestling, both contestants started out standing and then a wrestler sought to hold his opponent's shoulder to the ground (known as a fall). If no fall was scored, both wrestlers continued grappling on the ground, and almost all holds and techniques were allowable. If neither wrestler then achieved a fall, the contestants would continue both standing and on the ground until a fall was made. Because of the widespread interest in and esteem of professional Greco-Roman wrestling and its popularity in many international meets in nineteenth century Europe, freestyle wrestling (and wrestling as an amateur sport in general) had a tough time gaining ground in the USA. The 1896 Olympic Games had only one wrestling bout, a heavyweight Greco-Roman match. Freestyle wrestling first emerged as an Olympic sport in the Saint Louis Olympics of 1904. The 1904 Olympics sanctioned the rules commonly used for catch-as-catch can, but imposed some restrictions on dangerous holds.