Olympic Wrestling Scoring by Rounds

Can someone explain the rationale for scoring both Greco-Roman and Freestyle wrestling by rounds, not points?

In other words, in order to win a match, it does not matter how many points overall a wrestler receives, but only whether he wins two rounds. So a wrestler could win the first round by say, 5-0, and lose the second and third by 1-2 each, and thereby lose the match (one round to two rounds), despite racking up more points overall (7 points to 4 points in this hypothetical example).

I am assuming this is a relatively new change, and I am curious as to why both Greco-Roman and Freestyle federations adopted it.

I think they did this to make it more exciting…so that a dude couldn’t get up by so many points that he could basically stall out the rest of the rounds. I don’t really agree with the way they did it though…especially in situations where they end up tied and the one who scored the last points wins the round.

I havent met a wrestler in my community that agrees with the “new” scoring methods. It is pretty lame to be honest. A lot more people wrestle passive now a days, just get their first point and stall the rest of the game.

I’m hearing talk of change though, not sure if that’s just over here or on a international basis. There are still people, me including who just go for the high throw (greco roman, unsure of the english word, but when one guy is kneeling and the other guy can throw him, basically do a clean and a toss) and get 5pt and then one roll and you got the round.

Thanks for the answers.

I suspected it was an attempt to make things more exciting.

But I, too, don’t find the logic compelling. The incentive is to score early in a round, and then stall. Even if you are up by just a bit, that incentive to stall, to be passive, will be stronger, not weaker, under these new rules.