Wrestling at the 1956 Summer Olympics – Men's Greco-Roman light heavyweight explained

Event:Men's light heavyweight Greco-Roman wrestling
Games:1956 Summer
Venue:Royal Exhibition Building
Dates:December 3–6
Competitors:10
Nations:10
Gold:Valentin Nikolayev
Goldnoc:URS
Silver:Petko Sirakov
Silvernoc:BUL
Bronze:Karl-Erik Nilsson
Bronzenoc:SWE
Prev:1952
Next:1960

The men's Greco-Roman light heavyweight was a Greco-Roman wrestling event held as part of the Wrestling at the 1956 Summer Olympics programme. It was the tenth appearance of the event. Light heavyweight was the second-heaviest category, including wrestlers weighing 79to.[1]

Competition format

This Greco-Roman 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, as modified in 1952 (adding medal rounds and making all losses worth 3 points—from 1936 to 1948 losses by split decision only cost 2). 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

Source: Official results[2] [1]

Round 1

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

Round 2

Atan withdrew due to injury after his bout.

Bouts
Winner Nation Victory Type Loser Nation
Decision, 2–1
Decision, 3–0
Fall
Fall
Fall
Points
Rank Wrestler Nation Start Earned Total
1 1 0 1
2 1 1 2
3 3 0 3
3 0 3 3
3 3 0 3
6 3 1 4
6 1 3 4
8 1 3 4*
9 3 3 6
9 3 3 6

Round 3

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

Round 4

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

Medal rounds

Nikolayev's victories over Sirakov in round 1 and over Nilsson in round 4 counted for the medal round, giving him the gold medal at 2–0 against the other medalists. Sirakov defeated Nilsson in a de facto silver medal bout.

Bouts
Winner Nation Victory Type Loser Nation
Decision, 3–0
Points
Rank Wrestler Nation Wins Losses
2 0
1 1
0 2

References

General

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Wrestling at the 1956 Melbourne Summer Games: Men's Light-Heavyweight, Greco-Roman . https://web.archive.org/web/20200418131933/https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/summer/1956/WRE/mens-light-heavyweight-greco-roman.html . dead . 18 April 2020 . Sports Reference . 13 March 2019.
  2. Web site: The Official Report of the Organizing Committee for the Games of the XVI Olympiad Melbourne 1956 . 2012-08-19 . 1958 . The Organizing Committee of the XVI Olympiad, Melbourne . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20080912181829/http://www.la84foundation.org/6oic/OfficialReports/1956/OR1956.pdf . 2008-09-12 .