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


The men's freestyle light 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
Viking PalmDecision, 3–0Kevin Coote
Henry WittenbergFallRodolfo Padron
Willy LardonFallBob Steckle
Jan TheronDecision, 2–1Shrirang Jadhav
August EnglasDecision, 3–0Adil Atan
Max LeichterDecision, 3–0Paavo Sepponen
Abbas ZandiByeN/AN/A

; Points
RankWrestlerNationStartEarnedTotal
1000
1000
1000
4011
4011
4011
4011
8033
8033
8033
8033
8033
8033

Round 2

Lardon withdrew after his bout.
; Bouts
WinnerNationVictory TypeLoserNation
Abbas ZandiDecision, 3–0Kevin Coote
Viking PalmFallRodolfo Padron
Henry WittenbergFallWilly Lardon
Jan TheronDecision, 3–0Bob Steckle
August EnglasFallShrirang Jadhav
Adil AtanFallMax Leichter
Paavo SepponenByeN/AN/A

; Points
RankWrestlerNationStartEarnedTotal
1000
2101
2101
2011
5112
6303
6303
8134
9033*
10336
10336
10336
10336

Round 3

; Bouts
WinnerNationVictory TypeLoserNation
Abbas ZandiDecision, 3–0Paavo Sepponen
Viking PalmDecision, 3–0Henry Wittenberg
Adil AtanFallJan Theron
August EnglasFallMax Leichter

; Points
RankWrestlerNationStartEarnedTotal
1101
2112
2112
4303
4033
6235
7336
8437

Round 4

; Bouts
WinnerNationVictory TypeLoserNation
Viking PalmDecision, 2–1Abbas Zandi
Henry WittenbergDecision, 3–0August Englas
Adil AtanByeN/AN/A

; Points
RankWrestlerNationStartEarnedTotal
1303
1213
3134
4314
5235

Round 5

; Bouts
WinnerNationVictory TypeLoserNation
Henry WittenbergFallAdil Atan
Viking PalmDecision, 2–1August Englas

; Points
RankWrestlerNationStartEarnedTotal
1314
1404
3336
4437

Medal rounds

Palm's victory over Wittenberg in round 3 and Wittenberg's victory over Atan in round 5 counted for the medal round. The only bout left for the round therefore was Palm against Atan, with Wittenberg a spectator—who had to hope for an Atan victory to create a three-way tie at 1–1 which Wittenberg would win on bad points to take gold. Palm was able to defeat Atan in a split decision, however, and the Swede thereby won the gold medal, having beaten both of the other medalists.
; Bouts
WinnerNationVictory TypeLoserNation
Viking PalmDecision, 2–1Adil Atan

; Points
RankWrestlerNationWinsLossesStartEarnedTotal
20415
11404
02639