Kurash: an ancient folk wrestling becomes modern sport

Kurash is one of the most ancient folk styles of wrestling known to humankind. According to research, the game emerged on the territory of modern Uzbekistan at least 3500 years ago.

In Uzbek, “Kurash" means "achieving a goal in an honest way." Back in the day this fighting technique was used during wars to protect the population. Men displayed their mastery of Kurash during weddings, holidays, local and national celebrations. It is mentioned in numerous ancient literary and historical sources.

In Central Asia the technique, tradition, rules, and philosophy of Kurash wrestling were orally passed down from generation to generation, from fathers to children. The first attempt to put together and summarize this knowledge was made in 1990.

Prior to this Kurash was not considered to be an independent sport, subject to certain rules and requirements. Many local athletes, trained in Kurash wrestling style as children, later fell in love with sports and began to try themselves in various disciplines eventually becoming champions and world prize winners.

Komil Yusoupov, the founder of modern Kurash took this path, too. The Uzbek athlete was an international master of sport in sambo and judo and a member of the former USSR Olympic judo team. In 1980 after his mother’s passing and some health problems emerged, Yusoupov had to withdraw from the Moscow Olympics where he was a clear favourite.

The inability to pursue a professional sports career only motivated Komil Yusoupov to focus his attention on transforming national Kurash wrestling into an international sports discipline aspiring to become part of the Olympic Games program.

Yusoupov started to work on a set of rules for Kurash wrestling. For this purpose, he analysed the rules of