Wrestling at the 1952 Summer Olympics – Men's freestyle heavyweight


The men's freestyle heavyweight competition at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki took place from 20 July to 23 July at Messuhalli. Nations were limited to one competitor.

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. Each round featured all wrestlers pairing off and wrestling one bout. 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 ; record within the medal round determined medals, with bad points breaking ties.

Results

Round 1

; Bouts
WinnerNationVictory TypeLoserNation
Arsen MekokishviliFallJózsef Kovács
Ken RichmondFallAdolfo Ramírez
Bertil AntonssonFallJosef Růžička
Taisto KangasniemiFallAhad Vafadar
İrfan AtanFallWilliam Kerslake
Natale VecchiDecision, 3–0Auguste Baarendse
Willi WaltnerByeN/AN/A

; Points
RankWrestlerNationStartEarnedTotal
1000
1000
1000
1000
1000
1000
7011
8033
8033
8033
8033
8033
8033

Round 2

; Bouts
WinnerNationVictory TypeLoserNation
Arsen MekokishviliDecision, 3–0Willi Waltner
Ken RichmondDecision, 3–0József Kovács
Bertil AntonssonFallAdolfo Ramírez
Taisto KangasniemiFallJosef Růžička
İrfan AtanDecision, 2–1Ahad Vafadar
William KerslakeFallAuguste Baarendse
Natale VecchiByeN/AN/A

; Points
RankWrestlerNationStartEarnedTotal
1000
1000
3011
3011
3011
3101
7303
7033
9336
9336
9336
9336
9336

Round 3

; Bouts
WinnerNationVictory TypeLoserNation
Willi WaltnerDecision, 2–1Natale Vecchi
Arsen MekokishviliDecision, 2–1Ken Richmond
Bertil AntonssonDecision, 2–1İrfan Atan
William KerslakeFallTaisto Kangasniemi

; Points
RankWrestlerNationStartEarnedTotal
1011
2112
3033
3303
5134
5134
5134
5314

Round 4

Kerslake took 5th place over Kangasniemi due to head-to-head results from round 3.
; Bouts
WinnerNationVictory TypeLoserNation
Arsen MekokishviliFallNatale Vecchi
Ken RichmondFallWilli Waltner
Bertil AntonssonDecision, 2–1William Kerslake
İrfan AtanDecision, 3–0Taisto Kangasniemi

; Points
RankWrestlerNationStartEarnedTotal
1112
1202
3404
4415
5336
6336
7437
7437

Medal rounds

Mekokishvili's victory over Richmond counted for the medal rounds. Mekokishvili then defeated Antonsson to win the gold medal at 2–0 against the other medalists. Antonsson then faced Richmond for the silver medal, with the Swede winning.
; Bouts
WinnerNationVictory TypeLoserNation
Arsen MekokishviliDecision, 2–1Bertil Antonsson
Bertil AntonssonFallKen Richmond

; Points
RankWrestlerNationWinsLossesStartEarnedTotal
20213
11235
02437