Wrestling at the 1956 Summer Olympics – Men's Greco-Roman light heavyweight


The men's Greco-Roman light heavyweight was a Greco-Roman wrestling event held as part of the Wrestling at the 1956 Summer Olympics programme. It was the tenth appearance of the event. Light heavyweight was the second-heaviest category, including wrestlers weighing up to 87 kilograms.

Competition format

This Greco-Roman 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. 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

Source: Official results

Round 1

; Bouts
WinnerNationVictory TypeLoserNation
Adil AtanDecision, 2–1Gyula Kovács
Valentin NikolayevDecision, 3–0Petko Sirakov
Dale O. ThomasFallEugen Wiesberger Jr.
Karl-Erik NilssonDecision, 3–0Veikko Lahti
Bob SteckleDecision, 2–1Victor Macha

; Points
RankWrestlerNationStartEarnedTotal
1000
2011
2011
2011
2011
6033
6033
6033
6033
6033

Round 2

Atan withdrew due to injury after his bout.
; Bouts
WinnerNationVictory TypeLoserNation
Petko SirakovDecision, 2–1Adil Atan
Valentin NikolayevDecision, 3–0Gyula Kovács
Veikko LahtiFallDale O. Thomas
Eugen Wiesberger Jr.FallVictor Macha
Karl-Erik NilssonFallBob Steckle

; Points
RankWrestlerNationStartEarnedTotal
1101
2112
3303
3033
3303
6314
6134
8134*
9336
9336

Round 3

; Bouts
WinnerNationVictory TypeLoserNation
Petko SirakovFallDale O. Thomas
Valentin NikolayevDecision, 3–0Veikko Lahti
Karl-Erik NilssonDecision, 3–0Eugen Wiesberger Jr.
Bob SteckleByeN/AN/A

; Points
RankWrestlerNationStartEarnedTotal
1112
2213
3404
3404
5336
6336
7336

Round 4

; Bouts
WinnerNationVictory TypeLoserNation
Petko SirakovFallBob Steckle
Valentin NikolayevDecision, 3–0Karl-Erik Nilsson

; Points
RankWrestlerNationStartEarnedTotal
1314
1404
3235
4437

Medal rounds

Nikolayev's victories over Sirakov in round 1 and over Nilsson in round 4 counted for the medal round, giving him the gold medal at 2–0 against the other medalists. Sirakov defeated Nilsson in a de facto silver medal bout.
; Bouts
WinnerNationVictory TypeLoserNation
Petko SirakovDecision, 3–0Karl-Erik Nilsson

; Points
RankWrestlerNationWinsLosses
20
11
02