Wrestling is one of the most important sports in the Asian Games which commands numerous events in every edition and attracts a lot of talent which add to the wrestling pool. Wrestling has been a part of the Asian Games ever since the second edition in 1954 at Manila, Philippines. The introduction of the women’s events was a late addition, being introduced for the first time in the 2002 Asian Games at Busan.
Japan have been the most successful nation at wrestling in the Asian Games, having won a total of 154 medals throughout the history of the Asiad, with 66 of them being gold. The second most successful team is Iran who closely trail Japan with 64 gold medals and a total of 137 medals.
In the Asian Games 2018, wrestling will be held from 19th September to 22nd September and will have a total of 18 events.
Venue
The Asian Games 2018 wrestling events will take place at the Jakarta Convention Center in the Gelora Bung Karno Sports Complex, which acts as the main venue of the 18th Asian Games. The center has a seating capacity of 5,000. However, a temporary venue will be used within the center to hold the wrestling and other martial arts events.
Asian Games 2018 Wrestling Events
The men’s wrestling will take place in both freestyle and Greco-Roman style, however the women’s events will be only in the freestyle category. The 18 wrestling events for which medals will be awarded, are listed below:-
| Men’s Freestyle | 57 kg | 65 kg | 74 kg | 86 kg | 97 kg | 125 kg |
| Men’s Greco-Roman | 60 kg | 67 kg | 77 kg | 87 kg | 97 kg | 130 kg |
| Women’s Freestyle | 50 kg | 53 kg | 57 kg | 62 kg | 68 kg | 76 kg |
Women’s Freestyle: Single elimination brackets will be used to determine the two athletes who will compete in the final for first and second place. The repechage bracket will be built from the athletes who were knocked out by the finalists and those brackets will be used to determine the third-placed winner.
Defending Champions
In the 2014 Incheon games, Iran led the charge in the wrestling events. In total, they won 12 medals in wrestling events with six of them being gold. Japan were second in the tally with four gold medals and a total of 11 medals overall. India too had a decent outing as they won five medals with one gold, and were placed seventh in the tally.
