Wrestling at the 1952 Summer Olympics – Men's freestyle welterweight explained

Event:Men's freestyle welterweight
Games:1952 Summer
Venue:Messuhalli
Dates:20–23 July
Competitors:20
Nations:20
Gold:William Smith
Goldnoc:USA
Silver:Per Berlin
Silvernoc:SWE
Bronze:Abdollah Mojtabavi
Bronzenoc:IRI
Prev:1948
Next:1956

The men's freestyle welterweight competition at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki took place from 20 July to 23 July at Messuhalli. Nations were limited to one competitor.[1] Welterweight was the fourth-heaviest category, including wrestlers weighing 67to.

Competition format

This freestyle wrestling competition continued to use the "bad points" elimination system introduced at the 1928 Summer Olympics for Greco-Roman and at the 1932 Summer Olympics for freestyle wrestling, removing the slight modification introduced in 1936 and used until 1948 (which had a reduced penalty for a loss by 2–1 decision). Each round featured all wrestlers pairing off and wrestling one bout (with one wrestler having a bye if there were an odd number). The loser received 3 points. The winner received 1 point if the win was by decision and 0 points if the win was by fall. At the end of each round, any wrestler with at least 5 points was eliminated. This elimination continued until the medal rounds, which began when 3 wrestlers remained. These 3 wrestlers each faced each other in a round-robin medal round (with earlier results counting, if any had wrestled another before); record within the medal round determined medals, with bad points breaking ties.[1]

Results

Round 1

Bouts
Winner Nation Victory Type Loser Nation
Decision, 3–0
Decision, 3–0
Decision, 2–1
Fall
Decision, 3–0
Fall
Decision, 2–1
Decision, 3–0
Decision, 2–1
Decision, 2–1
Points
Rank Wrestler Nation Start Earned Total
1 0 0 0
1 0 0 0
3 0 1 1
3 0 1 1
3 0 1 1
3 0 1 1
3 0 1 1
3 0 1 1
3 0 1 1
3 0 1 1
11 0 3 3
11 0 3 3
11 0 3 3
11 0 3 3
11 0 3 3
11 0 3 3
11 0 3 3
11 0 3 3
11 0 3 3
11 0 3 3

Round 2

It is unclear why Leclerc was not eliminated but instead continued on to round 3.

Bouts
Winner Nation Victory Type Loser Nation
Decision, 3–0
Fall
Decision, 2–0
Fall
Fall
Fall
Decision, 3–0
Decision, 2–1
Decision, 2–1
Decision, 2–1
Points
Rank Wrestler Nation Start Earned Total
1 0 0 0
2 1 0 1
2 1 0 1
2 0 1 1
5 1 1 2
5 1 1 2
5 1 1 2
5 1 1 2
9 3 0 3
10 1 3 4
10 3 1 4
10 1 3 4
13 3 3 6
14 3 3 6
14 3 3 6
14 3 3 6
14 3 3 6
14 3 3 6
14 3 3 6
14 3 3 6

Round 3

Bouts
Winner Nation Victory Type Loser Nation
Decision, 3–0
Decision, 3–0
Fall
Decision, 2–1
Decision, 3–0
Decision, 3–0
Bye N/A N/A
Points
Rank Wrestler Nation Start Earned Total
1 1 1 2
1 1 1 2
3 2 1 3
3 0 3 3
3 3 0 3
3 2 1 3
7 4 0 4
7 1 3 4
9 4 1 5
9 2 3 5
9 2 3 5
12 4 3 7
13 6 3 9

Round 4

Bouts
Winner Nation Victory Type Loser Nation
Decision, 3–0
Decision, 2–1
Fall
Decision, 3–0
Points
Rank Wrestler Nation Start Earned Total
1 2 0 2
2 2 1 3
3 3 1 4
4 4 1 5
5 3 3 6
5 3 3 6
5 3 3 6
8 4 3 7

Medal rounds

None of the medalists had faced each other, so each wrestled the other two. Each won a bout and lost a bout, so bad points were used to break the three-way 1–1 tie. Smith had won two bouts by fall and two by decision coming into the medal round, leading at 2 points. Berlin had taken only one bout by fall and three by decision before the medal round, coming in at second place with 3 points. All four of Mojtabavi's pre-medal round wins had been by decision, so he had 4 points and came in at third place. Each wrestler earned 4 points in the medal rounds (1 win by decision, 1 loss), so their rank order did not change. Smith took gold, Berlin silver, and Mojtabavi bronze.

Bouts
Winner Nation Victory Type Loser Nation
Decision, 3–0
Decision, 3–0
Decision, 3–0
Points
Rank Wrestler Nation Start Earned Total
2 4 6
3 4 7
4 4 8

References

General

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Wrestling at the 1952 Helsinki Summer Games: Men's freestyle welterweight . https://web.archive.org/web/20200418132314/https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/summer/1952/WRE/mens-welterweight-freestyle.html . dead . 18 April 2020 . Sports Reference . 10 March 2019.