United World Wrestling’s highlight video for its 2014 World Championships in freestyle and Greco Roman wrestling is simply gorgeous. I don’t know any other way to describe it.
See for yourself.
Frankly, I’m not entirely comfortable calling it a mere highlight video. While most wrestling highlight videos have entertainment value, they are usually sloppy things cobbled together by some amateur and paired with some trite song. The above highlight video, however, arises to the level of art.
Ben Lowy, the man hired by UWW to create this, does a hell of a job. With colorless and fairly quiet footage, he captures this sport as it really is, as hundreds of nervous competitors from the four corners of the planet gather to compete in mankind’s original sport on the biggest stage imaginable.
Lowy’s best choice is simply to let the sport of wrestling and the passion of its athletes speak do the work, and through his lens, viewers can see a sport filled with beauty, excitement and massive relevance to the global athletic heritage.