The men's Greco-Roman 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. Heavyweight was the heaviest category, including wrestlers weighing over .
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 three points. The winner received one point if the win was by decision and zero points if the win was by fall. At the end of each round, any wrestler with at least five points was eliminated. This elimination continued until the medal rounds, which began when three wrestlers remained. These three 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 Willi Waltner Walkover K. Richmond Antonios Georgoulis Fall Adolfo Ramírez Tauno Kovanen Decision, 3–0 Alexandru Şuli Josef Růžička Fall József Kovács Johannes Kotkas Walkover A. Baarendse Bengt Fahlkvist Fall Guido Fantoni
Points
Rank Wrestler Nation Start Earned Total 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 6 0 1 1 7 0 3 3 7 0 3 3 7 0 3 3 7 0 3 3
Round 2
Bouts
Winner Nation Victory Type Loser Nation Willi Waltner Decision, 3–0 Antonios Georgoulis Tauno Kovanen Decision, 3–0 Adolfo Ramírez Alexandru Şuli Decision, 2–1 József Kovács Guido Fantoni Decision, 2–1 Josef Růžička Johannes Kotkas Fall Bengt Fahlkvist
Points
Rank Wrestler Nation Start Earned Total 1 0 0 0 2 0 1 1 3 1 1 2 4 0 3 3 4 0 3 3 4 0 3 3 7 3 1 4 7 3 1 4 9 3 3 6 9 3 3 6
Round 3
Bouts
Winner Nation Victory Type Loser Nation Decision, 3–0 Tauno Kovanen Decision, 3–0 Willi Waltner Alexandru Şuli Decision, 3–0 Antonios Georgoulis Josef Růžička Fall Bengt Fahlkvist Johannes Kotkas Fall Guido Fantoni
Points
Rank Wrestler Nation Start Earned Total 1 0 0 0 2 2 1 3 2 3 0 3 4 1 3 4 5 4 1 5 6 3 3 6 6 3 3 6 8 4 3 7
Round 4
Bouts
Winner Nation Victory Type Loser Nation Josef Růžička Fall Willi Waltner Johannes Kotkas Fall Tauno Kovanen
Points
Rank Wrestler Nation Start Earned Total 1 0 0 0 2 3 0 3 3 3 3 6 4 4 3 7
Medal rounds
Kotkas's victory over Kovanen in round 4 counted for the medal rounds.
Bouts
Winner Nation Victory Type Loser Nation Josef Růžička Fall Tauno Kovanen Johannes Kotkas Fall Josef Růžička
Points
Rank Wrestler Nation Wins Losses Start Earned Total 2 0 0 0 0 1 1 3 3 6 0 2 6 3 9
Notes
References
General