Twenty-two injuries were suffered by wrestlers at Rio 2016, the governing body said, which is 6.25 per cent of the total field of 352 athletes.

This is down from both London 2012 and Beijing 2008 which recorded statistics of 12 per cent and 9.3 per cent respectively. 

Women's wrestling had the lowest injury rate in Rio, followed by freestyle and Greco-Roman.

According to UWW, their success comes despite an overall trend of the number of injuries going up in Summer Olympic sports.

"Higher education, improvements in wrestling rules and regulations and more attention to wrestlers' health care during recent years might explain this difference," a statement said.

"United World Wrestling is one of the only International Sports Federations with an established systematic Injury Surveillance Programme since 2004 and is committed to lead this programme aiming to monitor and further reduce the injuries in wrestling."

The figures have been analysed by UWW's Medical and Anti-Doping Commission.

"Across styles more injuries were observed in the middleweight categories with the most common injury type skin laceration and contusion, mostly on the forehead and eyebrows, followed by shoulder and elbow sprains," the governing body said.

"The majority of injuries (68.2 per cent) happened during the standing position when wrestlers engaged for a takedown and collided with their heads or when a wrestler's knee or elbow hit the opponent's head and face. 

"Twisting a joint was the second most common mechanism of the injury.

"Fifty-five percent of all injuries were classified as light, 27 per cent as moderate and 18 per cent as severe.

"Four bouts were terminated due to an injury. 

"No critical injury occurred on the mats and no wrestler was hospitalised for an injury during the Games."