The men's Greco-Roman featherweight competition at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne took place from 3 December to 6 December at the Royal Exhibition Building. Nations were limited to one competitor. Featherweight was the third-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, as modified in 1952 (adding medal rounds and making all losses worth 3 points—from 1936 to 1948 losses by split decision only cost 2). 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 Ion Popescu Decision, 3–0 Alan Rice Imre Polyák Decision, 2–1 Umberto Trippa Gunnar Håkansson Decision, 3–0 Roger Bielle Müzahir Sille Fall Roman Dzeneladze Rauno Mäkinen Fall Norman Ickeringill
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 Umberto Trippa Decision, 3–0 Ion Popescu Imre Polyák Decision, 3–0 Alan Rice Roman Dzeneladze Fall Gunnar Håkansson Rauno Mäkinen Decision, 2–1 Roger Bielle Müzahir Sille Fall Norman Ickeringill
Points
Rank Wrestler Nation Start Earned Total 1 0 0 0 2 0 1 1 3 1 1 2 4 3 0 3 5 1 3 4 5 1 3 4 5 3 1 4 8 3 3 6 8 3 3 6 8 3 3 6
Round 3
Trippa had defeated Popescu head-to-head, earning the tie-breaker for 6th place.
Bouts
Winner Nation Victory Type Loser Nation Imre Polyák Decision, 3–0 Ion Popescu Roman Dzeneladze Fall Umberto Trippa Gunnar Håkansson Decision, 2–1 Müzahir Sille Rauno Mäkinen Bye N/A N/A
Points
Rank Wrestler Nation Start Earned Total 1 1 0 1 2 3 0 3 2 2 1 3 2 0 3 3 5 4 1 5 6 4 3 7 7 4 3 7
Round 4
Bouts
Winner Nation Victory Type Loser Nation Roman Dzeneladze Decision, 2–1 Rauno Mäkinen Imre Polyák Fall Müzahir Sille
Points
Rank Wrestler Nation Start Earned Total 1 3 0 3 2 3 1 4 2 1 3 4 4 3 3 6
Medal rounds
Dzeneladze's victory over Mäkinen in round 4 counted for the medal rounds. Each wrestler finished 1–1 against the other medalists, with all of the victories by split decision. Mäkinen and Polyák tied for fewest points overall, at 5, with Mäkinen the victor among the two by head-to-head. Polyák took silver, having defeated Dzeneladze head-to-head.
Bouts
Winner Nation Victory Type Loser Nation Rauno Mäkinen Decision, 2–1 Imre Polyák Imre Polyák Decision, 2–1 Roman Dzeneladze
Points
Rank Wrestler Nation Wins Losses Points Start Earned Total 1 1 4 4 1 5 1 1 4 3 2 5 1 1 4 4 3 7
References
General