The men's Greco-Roman light heavyweight competition at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki took place from 24 July to 27 July at Messuhalli. Nations were limited to one competitor. .
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
Bouts
Winner Nation Victory Type Loser Nation Michel Skaff Decision, 2–1 Ovidiu Forai Karl-Erik Nilsson Decision, 3–0 Gyula Kovács Umberto Silvestri Decision, 2–1 İsmet Atlı Kelpo Gröndahl Fall Jos Schummer Shalva Chikhladze Fall Max Leichter
Points
Rank Wrestler Nation Start Earned Total 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 3 0 1 1 3 0 1 1 3 0 1 1 6 0 3 3 6 0 3 3 6 0 3 3 6 0 3 3 6 0 3 3
Round 2
Bouts
Winner Nation Victory Type Loser Nation Gyula Kovács Fall Michel Skaff Karl-Erik Nilsson Decision, 3–0 Ovidiu Forai İsmet Atlı Fall Jos Schummer Shalva Chikhladze Decision, 3–0 Umberto Silvestri Kelpo Gröndahl Decision, 3–0 Max Leichter
Points
Rank Wrestler Nation Start Earned Total 1 0 1 1 1 0 1 1 3 1 1 2 4 3 0 3 4 3 0 3 6 1 3 4 6 1 3 4 8 3 3 6 8 3 3 6 8 3 3 6
Round 3
Bouts
Winner Nation Victory Type Loser Nation Karl-Erik Nilsson Fall Michel Skaff Gyula Kovács Decision, 3–0 İsmet Atlı Kelpo Gröndahl Fall Umberto Silvestri Shalva Chikhladze Bye N/A N/A
Points
Rank Wrestler Nation Start Earned Total 1 1 0 1 1 1 0 1 3 2 0 2 4 3 1 4 5 3 3 6 6 4 3 7 6 4 3 7
Round 4
Nilsson's victory over Kovács in round 1 was the tie-breaker for third place and entry into the medal rounds.
Bouts
Winner Nation Victory Type Loser Nation Gyula Kovács Decision, 3–0 Shalva Chikhladze Kelpo Gröndahl Decision, 2–1 Karl-Erik Nilsson
Points
Rank Wrestler Nation Start Earned Total 1 1 1 2 2 1 3 4 3 2 3 5 4 4 1 5
Medal rounds
Gröndahl's victory over Nilsson in round 4 was counted for the medal rounds.
Bouts
Winner Nation Victory Type Loser Nation Shalva Chikhladze Decision, 3–0 Karl-Erik Nilsson Kelpo Gröndahl Decision, 2–1 Shalva Chikhladze
Points
Rank Wrestler Nation Wins Losses Start Earned Total 2 0 2 1 3 1 1 4 4 8 0 2 5 3 8
References
General