After a successful and happening season of the World Wrestling Championship at Belgrade, global attention has moved towards something new. The Beach Wrestling World Series is the next biggest hot take introduced by United World Wrestling. The latest iteration of the prestigious tournament witnessed a stark rise in participation from several countries. 

The initiative headed by UWW recently concluded the last leg of its series. While the sport has amassed a significant amount of popularity, it witnessed a massive spike recently. In fact, the participation rate increased by a whopping 30% in its latest leg which also involved an international coalition.

Another testament to the popularity of the new sport

Turkey’s Sarigerme marked the final stop of the staunch five-legged 2023 Beach Wrestling World Series tournament. The tournament concluded on 16th October after successful runs at Buenos Aires (Argentina), Singapore, Saint-Laurent-du-Var (France), Constanta (Romania), and the final stop in Sarigerme. The popular and new age sport witnessed participation from over 50 countries across five continents this time, marking 2023 a big year for beach wrestling. The 30% rise in participation almost doubled the number of participating nations, and the number of both men and women significantly increased. 

The figures were presented at the annual meet of the Beach Wrestling Committee headed by UWW Bureau member and Committee President, Pedro Silva. He said, “We are very happy with the progress, growth, and development that we are witnessing worldwide regarding Beach Wrestling… This must leave us all proud of our achievements and also very confident about our future.” The achievement also marks the success of the sport of wrestling, and how widespread it has become. Especially considering that just 10 years ago, the IOC considered it an obsolete sport and removed it from the Summer Olympics.

The journey of wrestling from an almost discarded sport to a game-changer

The International Olympic Committee had ruled out wrestling from the official list of sports to be played in the Tokyo Olympics. The reason for this lay in the decreasing viewership of the sport, which failed to appeal to the audience. The IOC repeatedly pointed out the dullness and ambiguity of the sport, which fell on deaf ears, till a complete makeover was carried out. Today, wrestling is more creative, fast-paced, and dynamic with multiple weight classes. It has become a highly enjoyable sport among both men and women.

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While wrestling retained its Olympic spot, beach wrestling may soon make its debut as an Olympic sport as well. It has already featured in the Youth Olympic Games before and will get another feature in the 2026 Youth Olympic Games as well. The IOC has recently shown a more open and liberal stance when it comes to including new games. With freestyle sports like skateboarding, and surfing making it to the Olympics, beach wrestling also stands a fair chance. Till then, the sport would keep working on increasing participation and viewership to table a strong case to the IOC.

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