Summary of overall best wrestling nation at each Olympics, which includes combining all styles that were contested.

In February 2013, IOC members voted to remove wrestling from the Olympic programme; The New York Times cited several potential factors in the decision, including the lack of universally-known talent unlike other sports, and concern for the lack of women's competitions in wrestling (having only introduced women's freestyle competitions in 2004).

[2][3][4] The decision resulted in immediate backlash; Armen Nazaryan and Sagid Murtazaliev both returned gold medals to the IOC in protest, while Nazaryan also staged a hunger strike until the 2013 European Wrestling Championships.

[5] FILA president Raphaël Martinetti resigned after a vote of non-confidence by the organization's staff.

[7][8] Lalović was largely credited for his role in the reinstatement; he remarked that "normally this is done in a few years, we did it in a few months.