| Event: | Men's freestyle 68 kg |
| Games: | 1972 Summer |
| Venue: | Messe München |
| Dates: | 27–31 August |
| Competitors: | 25 |
| Nations: | 25 |
| Gold: | Dan Gable |
| Goldnoc: | USA |
| Silver: | Kikuo Wada |
| Silvernoc: | JPN |
| Bronze: | Ruslan Ashuraliyev |
| Bronzenoc: | URS |
| Prev: | 1968 |
| Next: | 1976 |
The Men's Freestyle 68 kg at the 1972 Summer Olympics as part of the wrestling program at the Fairgrounds, Judo and Wrestling Hall. Israeli wrestler Eliezer Halfin was later killed in the Munich massacre.[1]
The competition used a form of negative points tournament, with negative points given for any result short of a fall. Accumulation of 6 negative points eliminated the wrestler. When only two or three wrestlers remain, a special final round is used to determine the order of the medals.
| TPP | MPP | Time | MPP | TPP | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | 3 | 3 | ||||
| 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | ||||
| 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | ||||
| 3.5 | 3.5 | 0.5 | 0.5 | ||||
| 1 | 1 | 3 | 3 | ||||
| 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | ||||
| 0 | 0 | 1:08 | 4 | 4 | |||
| 0 | 0 | 2:47 | 4 | 4 | |||
| 4 | 4 | 7:35 | 0 | 0 | |||
| 4 | 4 | 8:58 | 0 | 0 | |||
| 3.5 | 3.5 | 0.5 | 0.5 | ||||
| 4 | 4 | 7:36 | 0 | 0 | |||
| 0 | Bye |
| TPP | MPP | Time | MPP | TPP | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 3 | 1 | 2 | |||||
| 4 | 1 | 3 | bgcolor=pink | 6 | ||||
| 4 | 3 | 1 | 4 | |||||
| 1.5 | 0.5 | 3.5 | bgcolor=pink | 7 | ||||
| 5 | 4 | 5:45 | 0 | 3 | ||||
| bgcolor=pink | 7 | 4 | 5:31 | 0 | 1 | |||
| 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | |||||
| bgcolor=pink | 8 | 4 | 1:50 | 0 | 4 | |||
| bgcolor=pink | 7 | 3 | 1 | 5 | ||||
| 0.5 | 0.5 | 3.5 | 3.5 | |||||
| bgcolor=pink | 6.5 | 3 | 1 | 5 | ||||
| 3.5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | |||||
| bgcolor=pink | 0.5 | DNA |
| TPP | MPP | Time | MPP | TPP | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 0 | 4:50 | 4 | bgcolor=pink | 8 | |||
| 5 | 3 | 1 | 5 | |||||
| 4 | 0 | 3:27 | 4 | bgcolor=pink | 9 | |||
| 1.5 | 0 | 7:37 | 4 | bgcolor=pink | 7 | |||
| 3 | 2 | 2 | 5 | |||||
| 5 | 4 | 4:03 | 0 | 0.5 | ||||
| 4 | 0 | 4:53 | 4 | bgcolor=pink | 9 | |||
| bgcolor=pink | 7 | 3.5 | 0.5 | 1.5 | ||||
| 3.5 | 0 | 7:29 | 4 | bgcolor=pink | 9 |
| TPP | MPP | Time | MPP | TPP | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| bgcolor=pink | 7 | 4 | 4:42 | 0 | 5 | ||
| 5 | 0 | 8:26 | 4 | bgcolor=pink | 8 | ||
| 1.5 | 0 | 2:23 | 4 | bgcolor=pink | 7 | ||
| 5 | 0 | 2:17 | 4 | bgcolor=pink | 8 | ||
| bgcolor=pink | 8 | 3 | 1 | 4.5 | |||
| 1.5 | 1 | 3 | 4.5 |
| TPP | MPP | Time | MPP | TPP | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| bgcolor=pink | 6 | 1 | 3 | 4.5 | ||||
| bgcolor=pink | 6 | 1 | 3 | bgcolor=pink | 8 | |||
| 1.5 | 0 | 4:13 | 4 | bgcolor=pink | 8.5 | |||
| 4.5 | Bye |
Results from the preliminary round are carried forward into the final (shown in yellow).
| TPP | MPP | Time | MPP | TPP | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | ||||||
| 4 | 1 | 3 | |||||
| 2 | 1 | 3 | 6 |