The men's Greco-Roman lightweight competition at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki took place from 24 July to 27 July at Messuhalli. Nations were limited to one competitor. Lightweight was the fourth-lightest category, including wrestlers weighing .
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, removing the slight modification introduced in 1936 and used until 1948 (which had a reduced penalty for a loss by 2–1 decision). 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. 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 (with earlier results counting, if any had wrestled another before); record within the medal round determined medals, with bad points breaking ties.
Results
Round 1
Akbulut withdrew after his bout.
Bouts
Winner Nation Victory Type Loser Nation Jan Cools Decision, 3–0 Metty Scheitler Kamal Hussain Decision, 3–0 Erich Schmidt Mikuláš Athanasov Decision, 3–0 Georgios Petmezas André Verdaine Decision, 3–0 Zbigniew Szajewski Franco Benedetti Fall Arístides Pérez Dumitru Cuc Fall Aage Eriksen Shazam Safin Decision, 3–0 Raif Akbulut Gustav Freij Fall Jack Rasmussen Kalle Haapasalmi Decision, 3–0 Heini Nettesheim Gyula Tarr Bye N/A N/A
Points
Rank Wrestler Nation Start Earned Total 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 5 0 1 1 5 0 1 1 5 0 1 1 5 0 1 1 5 0 1 1 5 0 1 1 11 0 3 3 11 0 3 3 11 0 3 3 11 0 3 3 11 0 3 3 11 0 3 3 11 0 3 3 11 0 3 3 19 0 3 3*
Round 2
Bouts
Winner Nation Victory Type Loser Nation Gyula Tarr Decision, 3–0 Jan Cools Kamal Hussain Decision, 3–0 Metty Scheitler Erich Schmidt Decision, 2–1 Georgios Petmezas Mikuláš Athanasov Decision, 2–1 André Verdaine Zbigniew Szajewski Fall Arístides Pérez Dumitru Cuc Decision, 3–0 Franco Benedetti Shazam Safin Fall Aage Eriksen Gustav Freij Decision, 3–0 Kalle Haapasalmi Jack Rasmussen Fall Heini Nettesheim
Points
Rank Wrestler Nation Start Earned Total 1 0 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 0 1 1 5 1 1 2 5 1 1 2 7 0 3 3 7 3 0 3 7 3 0 3 10 1 3 4 10 1 3 4 10 3 1 4 10 1 3 4 14 3 3 6 14 3 3 6 14 3 3 6 14 3 3 6 14 3 3 6
Round 3
Bouts
Winner Nation Victory Type Loser Nation Gyula Tarr Decision, 3–0 Kamal Hussain Erich Schmidt Decision, 3–0 Jan Cools Mikuláš Athanasov Walkover Zbigniew Szajewski Franco Benedetti Decision, 2–1 André Verdaine Gustav Freij Decision, 3–0 Dumitru Cuc Shazam Safin Fall Jack Rasmussen Kalle Haapasalmi Bye N/A N/A
Points
Rank Wrestler Nation Start Earned Total 1 1 0 1 2 2 0 2 2 1 1 2 2 1 1 2 5 3 1 4 5 1 3 4 5 4 0 4 8 2 3 5 8 4 1 5 10 3 3 6 10 3 3 6 12 4 3 7 12 4 3 7
Round 4
Bouts
Winner Nation Victory Type Loser Nation Gyula Tarr Decision, 3–0 Kalle Haapasalmi Mikuláš Athanasov Fall Franco Benedetti Shazam Safin Decision, 3–0 Dumitru Cuc Gustav Freij Bye N/A N/A
Points
Rank Wrestler Nation Start Earned Total 1 2 0 2 1 2 0 2 1 1 1 2 4 2 1 3 5 4 3 7 5 4 3 7 5 4 3 7
Round 5
Bouts
Winner Nation Victory Type Loser Nation Gustav Freij Decision, 3–0 Gyula Tarr Shazam Safin Fall Mikuláš Athanasov
Points
Rank Wrestler Nation Start Earned Total 1 2 0 2 2 2 1 3 3 2 3 5 4 3 3 6
Medal rounds
Safin's victory over Athanasov in round 5 counted for the medal rounds.
Bouts
Winner Nation Victory Type Loser Nation Gustav Freij Decision, 3–0 Mikuláš Athanasov Shazam Safin Fall Gustav Freij
Points
Rank Wrestler Nation Wins Losses Start Earned Total 2 0 2 0 2 1 1 3 4 7 0 2 5 3 8
References
General