Wrestling at the 1956 Summer Olympics – Men's freestyle middleweight


The men's freestyle welterweight 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.

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, 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

Round 1

; Bouts
WinnerNationVictory TypeLoserNation
Viljo PunkariFallMuhammad Faiz
Dan HodgeFallGeorge Farquhar
Bakshish SinghDecision, 3–0William Davies
Bengt LindbladDecision, 3–0Manie van Zyl
Hans SterrFallNicolas Arcales
Nikola StanchevDecision, 3–0Georgy Skhirtladze
Abbas ZandiDecision, 3–0Kazuo Katsuramoto
İsmet AtlıByeN/AN/A

; Points
RankWrestlerNationStartEarnedTotal
1000
1000
1000
1000
5011
5011
5011
5011
9033
9033
9033
9033
9033
9033
9033

Round 2

Punkari withdrew after his bout.
; Bouts
WinnerNationVictory TypeLoserNation
İsmet AtlıFallMuhammad Faiz
Dan HodgeDecision, 3–0Viljo Punkari
William DaviesDecision, 3–0George Farquhar
Manie van ZylDecision, 3–0Bakshish Singh
Hans SterrFallBengt Lindblad
Georgy SkhirtladzeFallNicolas Arcales
Kazuo KatsuramotoFallNikola Stanchev
Abbas ZandiByeN/AN/A

; Points
RankWrestlerNationStartEarnedTotal
1000
1000
3011
3101
5303
5303
7314
7134
7134
7134
7314
12033*
13336
13336
13336

Round 3

; Bouts
WinnerNationVictory TypeLoserNation
İsmet AtlıDecision, 3–0Abbas Zandi
Dan HodgeFallWilliam Davies
Bengt LindbladFallBakshish Singh
Georgy SkhirtladzeFallManie van Zyl
Nikola StanchevFallHans Sterr
Kazuo KatsuramotoByeN/AN/A

; Points
RankWrestlerNationStartEarnedTotal
1011
1101
3303
3303
3033
6404
6404
6134
9437
9437
9437

Round 4

; Bouts
WinnerNationVictory TypeLoserNation
İsmet AtlıDecision, 3–0Kazuo Katsuramoto
Dan HodgeFallAbbas Zandi
Nikola StanchevFallBengt Lindblad
Georgy SkhirtladzeFallHans Sterr

; Points
RankWrestlerNationStartEarnedTotal
1101
2112
3303
4404
5336
5336
7437
7437

Round 5

; Bouts
WinnerNationVictory TypeLoserNation
Georgy SkhirtladzeDecision, 2–1İsmet Atlı
Nikola StanchevFallDan Hodge

; Points
RankWrestlerNationStartEarnedTotal
1134
1314
1404
4235

Medal rounds

Stanchev's victories over Skhirtladze in round 1 and Hodge in round 5 counted for the medal rounds, giving the Bulgarian wrestler the gold medal with a 2–0 record against the other medalists. Hodge defeated Skhirtladze in a de facto silver medal match.
; Bouts
WinnerNationVictory TypeLoserNation
Dan HodgeFallGeorgy Skhirtladze

; Points
RankWrestlerNationWinsLosses
20
11
02