Gymnasts Vs Wrestlers Essay

Competitive athletes are extraordinarily disciplined and talented human beings, who dedicate the majority of their lives to a sport. Specifically wrestlers and gymnasts invest extensive amounts of their prime years into training, where they solely live and breathe that sport. Freestyle wrestling is a style of amateur wrestling, where the ultimate goal is to pin and/or win by points over the opponent. This is accomplished using a series of grappling attacks, body throws, and defence mechanisms, all executed on a circular ring with a diameter of seven metres. Gymnastics, on the other hand, is a non-contact sport, where the gymnast is evaluated on their performance on a variety of exercises requiring flexibility, balance, strength, and control. This
is typically displayed through the events of the vault, uneven bars, balance beam, rings and floor exercise. Both sports have often been compared to determine which of the two is harder.
However, there cannot be a definite answer since these are two vastly contrasting sports, both equally as difficult. Astoundingly, wrestlers and gymnasts have fairly identical musculoskeletal systems and use similar techniques in their training regimens to achieve such results. Both athletes tend to be short, with a low centre of gravity, and have an extremely muscular physique, with powerful upper extremities and strong abdominal muscles. Aside from the similarities in their athletic abilities, the sport itself has caused both athletes to live very diverse careers. With further examination of these athletes, an analysis will break down the physical aspects of gymnasts and wrestlers, and how their intensive training resulted in their similar musculoskeletal systems. Next, a comparison between wrestling matches and gymnastic routines and how their preparation and nutritional maintenance will affect their performance. Lastly, a final comparison will be made to prove the extreme differences there are between both athletes’ careers, and how their decision to become a professional athlete for that specific sport will affect their financial
stability.

Athlete Career Talent and timing can often influence the course of one’s career as an athlete. Not to say, extreme perseverance and maximal training habits are not defining factors; however, a little luck may just be enough to bring home a victory. The careers of gymnasts and wrestlers are very different in terms of their time able to compete and also their financial success during and after their prime years. Every sport sets a limit on an athlete’s body’s ability to perform, and the main defining factor is age. This causes the career span of athletes in different sports to vary, such as the short lived career of an Olympic gymnast compared to a longer career length of an Olympic freestyle wrestler. A gymnast generally begins training at age 5, they peak around 16 years old, and will continue training and competing for another 4 years before retiring. Whereas a wrestler can start training as late as freshman year of high school and will be able to compete for as long as 20 years. Specifically female gymnasts, are constantly at battle with puberty, “Any significant physical changes will screw up a gymnast’s game. More weight means [they] need to be stronger to jump high enough to flip around without landing on [their] head. More height makes it worse, because [they will] flip more slowly” (Reeve 2015). Puberty does not affect wrestling like it would in gymnastics. As an athlete ages, their body’s continue to grow and change. When a wrestler grows taller and gains weight, they have the option to move up a weight class. Wrestling is a sport for all body shapes and sizes leaving no limitations for the athlete. It also involves an abundant amount of styles and techniques that can be morphed to benefit the athlete’s body type. Wrestlers continuously adapt to their body’s changes, allowing the athlete to compete as they age, using time to their advantage and learning from their experiences. This is no the case in gymnastics, younger and stronger competitors out-match veteran gymnasts because they can perform “high-risk stunts [that] demand a feather-light, pre-pubescent physiques” (Clarke 2012). Olympic history also proves how difficult and nearly impossible it is to “win back-to-back Olympic all-around gold medals” (Reeves 2015), because a gymnast’s prime time is very short-lived. Olympic wrestling history, on the contrary, shows multiple back-to-back gold medal winners, such as Aleksandr Medved, representing the Soviet Union, who won 3 consecutive gold medals. The nature of the both sports creates two extremely different career outcomes for the athletes. In gymnastics, younger gymnasts are more superior in their athletic capabilities outshining veterans and forcing them into an early retirement. In wrestling, age comes with the needed experience for the sport, allowing wrestlers to continue competing for a longer career span.