1. Analysis of the Olympic Games Beijing 2008 Female Wrestling FILA Competence Centre Prof. Dr. Harold Tünnemann

2. FILA Coaches Clinic October 2008 Tokyo Analysis of the Olympic Games Beijing and the Olympic cycle 2004 - 2008 Female Wrestling Contents 0Preliminary remarks 1.International tendencies of the development of performance in wrestling 2.Analysis of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games 2.1. State of performance and development of female wrestling 2.1.1 Country-specific aspects 2.1.2 Qualitative analysis of combat behaviour 2.1.2.1 Combat behaviour of the nations 2.1.2. 2 Combat behaviour of the winner 3.Technical-tactical Highlights on a basis of video clips

3. 0 Preliminary remarks It has already become a good tradition to analyse the top event of the year on the occasion of the international coaches clinic and to draw conclusions for the next period of training. In this process the Olympic Games play an outstanding role and they have an extraordinary importance in the lives of female athletes. However, this does not only apply to the actors on the mats, but also to coaches, referees, officials, and spectators. The results of the Olympic Games reflect the work completed during one Olympic cycle, and an elaborate analysis furnishes the material for the training-methodical work during the next Olympic cycle.

4. In the following performance and development of performance in female wrestling shall be outlined, and attention shall be directed on progresses and deficiencies. In order to support in- depth analyses by coaches and athletes we place at your disposal videos with the best technical actions at the Olympic Games, a new edition of the DVD-ROM “Fascination Wrestling-special Olympic Edition” with the updated database and individual video sequences of the Olympic Games 1988 until 2008 as well as a DVD with highlights of the Beijing Olympic Games.

5. 1. International tendencies of the development of performance in wrestling As Mr. Jacques Rogge, the president of the IOC, closed the Olympic Games in Beijing with the words “These were truly exceptional Games!” the whole wrestling family could also be full of praise for the perfect organisation of the Chinese hosts. The Chinese responsible persons for our sport, the spectators and the nice volunteers especially made the Olympic Games to an unforgettable event for us. So we can support with all one's heart Mr. Rogge’s conclusion: “Through these Games, the world learned more about China, and China learned more about the world.” Athletes from 204 National Olympic Committees came to these dazzling venues and particularly the athletes from Great Britain made great increases in efficiency (chart 1).

7. In Wrestling 60 countries took part in the Olympic Summer Games and the 71 medals have been won by 28 countries. The most three successful countries in Wrestling have been in Beijing Russia, Japan and Georgia while Georgia made the biggest leap since Athens (chart 2).

9. For the second time Olympic contests for women were held in 4 weight categories, in which the Japanese athletes again were dominating (chart 3).

11. In general we can note a further increase in female wrestling since the first participation in the Olympic Games 2004 concerning the quality of wrestling (fig. 1).

13. The tendency of increase of the female wrestling discipline becomes also clear if we have a look at the quality of points of all participants (fig 2).

15. 2. Analysis of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games 2.1. State of performance and development of female wrestling 2.1.1 Country-specific aspects As already seen in figure 1 one can assume that women’s wrestling has experienced an enormous progress in performance after the Olympic recognition by the IOC and again since the first Olympic Games in Athens. The Japanese female wrestlers, who have dominated the Olympic female tournament in Beijing, have again contributed considerably to this positive development (fig. 3). With 4 medals, 2 of them being gold medals, and 37 nations’ points their training diligence has been rewarded, and they have impressively confirmed that the decision of the International Olympic Committee has been right.

17. The female athletes from Canada, the USA, China and Kazakhstan have also proved to be highly performing. The development of Kazakhstan is remarkable because they came from 0 points 2004 with 18 nation points 2008 to the 5th place. We can also congratulate the female athletes from Bulgaria and Columbia who showed an impressive development during the last Olympic Cycle. This leads us to a comparison of the nations’ performance from Athens and Beijing (fig. 4).

19. 2.1.2 Qualitative analysis of combat behaviour 2.1.2.1 Combat behaviour of the nations With the Performance index you can very good describe the technical-tactical abilities of a given nation or athlete. In this case the realized points will be set into relation to the points given away to the opponent (fig 5).

20. This also becomes clear if we have a look at the comparison of the quality of wrestling 2004 and 2008.

21. If we take a deeper look into the quality we can see right now the reasons for the technical-tactical advantages and disadvantages of the various nations (fig. 7).

22. The comparison of the attacking efficacy between 2004 and 2008 underlines this position (fig. 8).

23. 55 kg CHN - ROU

24. On the other hand there must be another winning factor if the Japanese wrestlers could have such a great success. And this becomes clear if we are looking at the defence abilities (fig. 9).

25. 55 kg JPN - RUS

26. The comparison of the Olympic Games 2004 to 2008 gives another hint for the improvement of the female wrestling during the last Olympic cycle. A lot of countries improved their defence abilities (like Canada and Russia) and the defence abilities of China and Japan became a little bit worse (fig. 10).

28. In the next figure (fig. 11) we summarized the technical-tactical quality of the best nations.

29. This may certainly be a consequence of the different strength abilities of both genders, however it has blessed the audience with highly attractive women’s competitions with the competitors demonstrating unquestioning courage of attack (video clip 3).

30. 55 kg ROU - COL

31. 2.1.2. 2 Combat behaviour of the winner We consider a different picture concerning the performance index, which describes the technical-tactical abilities of the winner (fig. 12).

33. It has to be mentioned that in comparison to the Olympic tournament 2004 in three female Olympic weight categories the winner could improve their technical-tactical performance (fig. 13)

34. If we have a look at the attack efficacy the dominating role of Wang and Yoshida becomes evident (fig. 14).

35. 72 kg SWE - CHN

36. Jiao Wang could show a better attack performance as her namesake of the Olympic Games 2004 with 0.96 2004 to 2.95 2008 (fig. 15). Also the Japanese Olympia champions Saori Yoshida and Kaori Icho improved their attack performance since 2004.

37. The unbelievable defence stability of the both Japanese Olympic Champions in 55 and 63 kg shows a look at the fig. 16. They let their opponents only about 0.1 points per minute!!

38. Her namesake Xu Wang has had 2004 with -0.33 much better values (fig. 17) and it is impressive that the two Japanese Olympic champions still improved their defence efficacy since 2004.

39. Summarizing the wrestling efficacy, all female Olympic champions have realized excellent performances with Jiao Wang and Saori Yoshida being clearly ahead (fig. 18). This figure also demonstrates the well known fact of the high quality of wrestling efficacy and attack performance in the Olympic female wrestling.

40. 3.Technical-tactical Highlights on a basis of video clips Of course we moved into centre stage in our analysis the combat behaviour of the best nations and the best athletes. But we could see in Beijing a lot of spectacular technical-tactical actions from athletes of various countries. We want to present in the end some additional technical-tactical actions to underline the great development of female wrestling.

41. 48 kg KOR - AUS

42. 55 kg UKR - USA

43. 48 kg JPN - UKR

44. 48 kg SWE - USA

45. 48 kg AZE - KAZ

46. 55 kg JPN - RUS

47. 48 kg UKR - MGL

48. 63 kg JPN - USA

49. 63 kg CHN - MGL

50. 72 kg JPN - CHN

51. 72 kg CHN - BUL

52. 55 kg JPN - CHN

54. 72 kg JPN - CHN