Wrestling at the 1956 Summer Olympics – Men's freestyle light heavyweight

The men's freestyle light heavyweight 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] Light heavyweight was the second-heaviest category, including wrestlers weighing 79 to 87 kilograms (174.2 to 191.8 lb).[2]

Men's freestyle light heavyweight
at the Games of the XVI Olympiad
VenueRoyal Exhibition Building
Dates28 November–1 December 1956
Competitors12 from 12 nations
Medalists
1st place, gold medalist(s) Gholam Reza Takhti  Iran
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Boris Kulayev  Soviet Union
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Pete Blair  United States
 1952
1960 

Competition format

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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.[2][1]

Results

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Round 1

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Round 2

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Round 3

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Round 4

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Medal rounds

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None of the medalists had faced each other yet, so a full round-robin was held. Takhti beat each of the other two medalists to win the gold medal, with Kulayev earning silver by beating Blair.

Bouts
WinnerNationVictory TypeLoserNation
Gholam Reza Takhti IranFallBoris Kulayev Soviet Union
Boris Kulayev Soviet UnionFallPeter Blair United States
Gholam Reza Takhti IranDecision, 3–0Peter Blair United States
Points
RankWrestlerNationWinsLosses
1st place, gold medalist(s)Gholam Reza Takhti Iran20
2nd place, silver medalist(s)Boris Kulayev Soviet Union11
3rd place, bronze medalist(s)Peter Blair United States02

References

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