The men's freestyle flyweight competition at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London took place from 29 July to 31 July at the Empress Hall, Earls Court Exhibition Centre. Nations were limited to one competitor. Flyweight was the lightest category, including wrestlers weighing up to .
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, with the slight modification introduced in 1936. 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 if the loss was by fall or unanimous decision and 2 points if the decision was 2-1 (this was the modification from prior years, where all losses were 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.
Results
Round 1
Bouts
Winner Nation Victory Type Loser Nation Thure Johansson Decision, 3–0 Mohamed Abdel Hamid El-Ward Lennart Viitala Decision, 2–1 Halit Balamir Billy Jernigan Decision, 3–0 Mansour Raisi Roland Baudric Decision, 2–1 Adolphe Lamot Khashaba Jadhav Decision, 3–0 Bert Harris Harry Parker Bye N/A N/A
Points
Rank Wrestler Nation Start Earned Total 1 Harry Parker 0 0 0 2 Roland Baudric 0 1 1 2 Khashaba Jadhav 0 1 1 2 Billy Jernigan 0 1 1 2 Thure Johansson 0 1 1 2 Lennart Viitala 0 1 1 7 Halit Balamir 0 2 2 7 Adolphe Lamot 0 2 2 9 Mohamed Abdel Hamid El-Ward 0 3 3 9 Bert Harris 0 3 3 9 Mansour Raisi 0 3 3
Round 2
Bouts
Winner Nation Victory Type Loser Nation Thure Johansson Fall Harry Parker Halit Balamir Decision, 3–0 Roland Baudric Lennart Viitala Fall Adolphe Lamot Mansour Raisi Fall Bert Harris Khashaba Jadhav Decision, 3–0 Billy Jernigan N/A N/A Over weight Mohamed Abdel Hamid El-Ward
Points
Rank Wrestler Nation Start Earned Total 1 Thure Johansson 1 0 1 1 Lennart Viitala 1 0 1 3 Khashaba Jadhav 1 1 2 4 Halit Balamir 2 1 3 4 Harry Parker 0 3 3 4 Mansour Raisi 3 0 3 7 Roland Baudric 1 3 4 7 Billy Jernigan 1 3 4 9 Adolphe Lamot 2 3 5 10 Mohamed Abdel Hamid El-Ward 3 3 6 10 Bert Harris 3 3 6
Round 3
Bouts
Winner Nation Victory Type Loser Nation Roland Baudric Retired Harry Parker Halit Balamir Fall Thure Johansson Lennart Viitala Decision, 3–0 Billy Jernigan Mansour Raisi Fall Khashaba Jadhav
Points
Rank Wrestler Nation Start Earned Total 1 Lennart Viitala 1 1 2 2 Halit Balamir 3 0 3 2 Mansour Raisi 3 0 3 4 Roland Baudric 4 0 4 4 Thure Johansson 1 3 4 6 Khashaba Jadhav 2 3 5 7 Harry Parker 3 3 6 8 Billy Jernigan 4 3 7
Round 4
Bouts
Winner Nation Victory Type Loser Nation Thure Johansson Fall Roland Baudric Halit Balamir Decision, 3–0 Mansour Raisi Lennart Viitala Bye N/A N/A
Points
Rank Wrestler Nation Start Earned Total 1 Lennart Viitala 2 0 2 2 Halit Balamir 3 1 4 2 Thure Johansson 4 0 4 4 Mansour Raisi 3 3 6 5 Roland Baudric 4 3 7
Round 5
By the fifth round, three wrestlers were left. Viitala had already defeated Balamir, in round 1, and Balamir had previously defeated Johansson, in round 3. Thus, the only possible match left was Viitala against Johansson. Viitala won to secure the gold medal, with Balamir receiving silver (despite not reaching 5 points) due to the previous head-to-head result against Viitala.
Bouts
Winner Nation Victory Type Loser Nation Lennart Viitala Fall Thure Johansson Halit Balamir Bye N/A N/A
Points
Rank Wrestler Nation Start Earned Total Lennart Viitala 2 0 2 Halit Balamir 4 0 4 Thure Johansson 4 3 7
References
General