Combat: Olympic Wrestling from Béziers finds a place among the greats

Les jeunes lutteurs biterrois ont fait forte impression lors des championnats de France du mois dernier. Club

Several hopefuls from the Béziers club have shone in recent weeks on the national scene.

They wrote one of the most beautiful pages in the history of the club and of Béziers combat sports. After having won the right to rub shoulders, for the very first time in their young career, with the very best wrestlers in the country, by offering themselves the title of champions of Occitanie a few weeks ago, three hopefuls of the Biterroise Olympic Wrestling (LOB) participated, on February 24 and 25, in the French Greco-Roman wrestling championships in Saint-Yrieix-la-Perche (Nouvelle-Aquitaine).

With, at stake, two titles of vice-champions of France for Naji Chahlal (U17) and Alperen Arslan (U15), as well as a place at the foot of the podium for Akin Arslan (U20). "They really amazed us. Even if we knew that they had potential, we did not expect such results", relishes Philippe Rourre, who relaunched the structure in 2008, before to be president until last year and the transfer of power to Malika Ameur.

"It’is really magnificent for the club, especially since they followed it up a few days later at the Cenon international tournament, going to get new big performances. This is very interesting for the future.

Many licensees

As much as these results are also the symbols of a club that is functioning well. Directly on the mats, but also behind the scenes. "There has been a real explosion for some time, more and more people are interested in the discipline. An all-female section was notably created last season. If I compare with the figures before Covid, the number of licensees has been multiplied by at least three", says Philippe Rourre, now treasurer of the LOB.

"Today we are the biggest club in the department. This is already very good, but we want to continue this momentum. When I see everything that is being done and the quality of our young people, I tell myself that there is reason to be confident for the future. The Béziers struggle has a bright future ahead of it.

One sport, three different styles

Considered as one of the oldest sporting practices in history, if not the oldest, wrestling is a combat sport where three different Olympic styles coexist: Greco-Roman wrestling (the first style to appear on the program of the modern Olympic Games in Athens in 1896), freestyle wrestling (the most practiced in the world and present on the Olympic program since 1904) and women's wrestling (represented for the first time at the Olympic Games in 2004 in Athens). These styles share a common purpose; common: the goal of the fight is to bring and maintain both shoulders of the opponent pinned to the mat.

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