The men's freestyle heavyweight competition at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki took place from 20 July to 23 July at Messuhalli. Nations were limited to one competitor. Heavyweight was the heaviest category, including wrestlers weighing over .
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, 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 to wrestle one bout, with one wrestler having a bye if there was an odd number. The loser received 3 points, while the winner received 1 point for a win by decision and 0 points for a win 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 three wrestlers each faced one another in a round-robin medal round (with earlier results counting if they had previously wrestled). The medal round record determined the medals, with bad points used to break ties.
Results
Round 1
Bouts
Winner Nation Victory Type Loser Nation Arsen Mekokishvili Fall József Kovács Ken Richmond Fall Adolfo Ramírez Bertil Antonsson Fall Josef Růžička Taisto Kangasniemi Fall Ahad Vafadar İrfan Atan Fall William Kerslake Natale Vecchi Decision, 3–0 Auguste Baarendse Willi Waltner 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 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 7 0 1 1 8 0 3 3 8 0 3 3 8 0 3 3 8 0 3 3 8 0 3 3 8 0 3 3
Round 2
Bouts
Winner Nation Victory Type Loser Nation Arsen Mekokishvili Decision, 3–0 Willi Waltner Ken Richmond Decision, 3–0 József Kovács Bertil Antonsson Fall Adolfo Ramírez Taisto Kangasniemi Fall Josef Růžička İrfan Atan Decision, 2–1 Ahad Vafadar William Kerslake Fall Auguste Baarendse Natale Vecchi Bye N/A N/A
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 3 1 0 1 7 3 0 3 7 0 3 3 9 3 3 6 9 3 3 6 9 3 3 6 9 3 3 6 9 3 3 6
Round 3
Bouts
Winner Nation Victory Type Loser Nation Willi Waltner Decision, 2–1 Natale Vecchi Arsen Mekokishvili Decision, 2–1 Ken Richmond Bertil Antonsson Decision, 2–1 İrfan Atan William Kerslake Fall Taisto Kangasniemi
Points
Rank Wrestler Nation Start Earned Total 1 0 1 1 2 1 1 2 3 0 3 3 3 3 0 3 5 1 3 4 5 1 3 4 5 1 3 4 5 3 1 4
Round 4
Kerslake took 5th place over Kangasniemi due to head-to-head results from round 3.
Bouts
Winner Nation Victory Type Loser Nation Arsen Mekokishvili Fall Natale Vecchi Ken Richmond Fall Willi Waltner Bertil Antonsson Decision, 2–1 William Kerslake İrfan Atan Decision, 3–0 Taisto Kangasniemi
Points
Rank Wrestler Nation Start Earned Total 1 1 1 2 1 2 0 2 3 4 0 4 4 4 1 5 5 3 3 6 6 3 3 6 7 4 3 7 7 4 3 7
Medal rounds
Mekokishvili's victory over Richmond counted for the medal rounds. Mekokishvili then defeated Antonsson to win the gold medal at 2–0 against the other medalists. Antonsson then faced Richmond for the silver medal, with the Swede winning.
Bouts
Winner Nation Victory Type Loser Nation Arsen Mekokishvili Decision, 2–1 Bertil Antonsson Bertil Antonsson Fall Ken Richmond
Points
Rank Wrestler Nation Wins Losses Start Earned Total 2 0 2 1 3 1 1 2 3 5 0 2 4 3 7
References
General