Wrestling at the 2000 Summer Olympics

The 2000 Olympic wrestling events were contested at the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre, in Exhibition Halls 1 and 2. The Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre also hosted boxing, fencing, judo, and weightlifting at the Sydney Olympics. It was the largest venue of the 2000 Olympics outside the Olympic Park. It was to be closed at the end of 2013 and then demolished to allow for the building of the Sydney International Convention, Exhibition and Entertainment Precinct at Darling Harbour.

The wrestling program changed in 2000, with the number of events in each style reduced to 8 from the 10 that had been held from 1972-96. This was in attempt to reduce the number of overall competitors at the Olympics, and necessitated changes in most of the weight class limits. The format was completely changed for each class, however. Approximately 20 wrestlers per class were separated into six groups, with round-robins held in each group. The winners of each group advanced to a single-elimination tournament, starting with quarter-finals.

The Soviet Union had been the dominant wrestling nation during its existence. At Sydney, Russia duplicated that dominance, winning 9 medals and 6 gold medals, and leading both medal lists (totals and golds) in both styles.