Wrestling at the 1956 Summer Olympics – Men's freestyle middleweight explained

Event:Men's freestyle middleweight
Games:1956 Summer
Venue:Royal Exhibition Building
Dates:28 November–1 December
Competitors:15
Nations:15
Gold:Nikola Stanchev
Goldnoc:BUL
Silver:Dan Hodge
Silvernoc:USA
Bronze:Georgy Skhirtladze
Bronzenoc:URS
Prev:1952
Next:1960

The men's freestyle middleweight competition at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne took place from 28 November to 1 December at the Royal Exhibition Building. Nations were limited to one competitor.[1] Middleweight was the third-heaviest category, including wrestlers weighing 73to.

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, 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

Round 1

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

Round 2

Punkari withdrew after his bout.

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

Round 3

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

Round 4

Bouts
Winner Nation Victory Type Loser Nation
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
4 4 0 4
5 3 3 6
5 3 3 6
7 4 3 7
7 4 3 7

Round 5

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

Medal rounds

Stanchev's victories over Skhirtladze in round 1 and Hodge in round 5 counted for the medal rounds, giving the Bulgarian wrestler the gold medal with a 2–0 record against the other medalists. Hodge defeated Skhirtladze in a de facto silver medal match.

Bouts
Winner Nation Victory Type Loser Nation
Fall
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 Freestyle Middleweight . https://web.archive.org/web/20200418130408/https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/summer/1956/WRE/mens-middleweight-freestyle.html . dead . 18 April 2020 . Sports Reference . 14 March 2019.