The men's Greco-Roman middleweight 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. Middleweight was the third-heaviest 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
Simić withdrew after his bout.
Bouts
Winner Nation Victory Type Loser Nation Viljo Punkari Fall Wally Paterson Givi Kartozia Decision, 3–0 Rune Jansson György Gurics Decision, 2–1 Jim Peckham Hans Sterr Fall İsmet Atlı Dimitar Dobrev Fall Branislav Simić
Points
Rank Wrestler Nation Start Earned Total 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 4 0 1 1 4 0 1 1 6 0 3 3 6 0 3 3 6 0 3 3 6 0 3 3 10 0 3 3*
Round 2
Bouts
Winner Nation Victory Type Loser Nation Rune Jansson Fall Viljo Punkari Givi Kartozia Fall Wally Paterson Jim Peckham Decision, 2–1 Hans Sterr György Gurics Decision, 3–0 İsmet Atlı Dimitar Dobrev Bye N/A N/A
Points
Rank Wrestler Nation Start Earned Total 1 0 0 0 2 1 0 1 3 1 1 2 4 3 0 3 4 0 3 3 4 0 3 3 7 3 1 4 8 3 3 6 8 3 3 6
Round 3
Bouts
Winner Nation Victory Type Loser Nation Dimitar Dobrev Decision, 2–1 Viljo Punkari Rune Jansson Decision, 2–1 Jim Peckham Givi Kartozia Decision, 3–0 György Gurics Hans Sterr Bye N/A N/A
Points
Rank Wrestler Nation Start Earned Total 1 0 1 1 2 1 1 2 3 3 0 3 4 3 1 4 5 2 3 5 6 3 3 6 7 4 3 7
Round 4
Bouts
Winner Nation Victory Type Loser Nation Rune Jansson Decision, 3–0 Hans Sterr Givi Kartozia Decision, 2–1 Dimitar Dobrev
Points
Rank Wrestler Nation Start Earned Total 1 2 1 3 2 1 3 4 3 4 1 5 4 3 3 6
Medal rounds
Kartozia's victories over Jansson in round 1 and over Dobrev in round 4 counted for the medal round, giving him the gold medal with a 2–0 record against the other medalists. Dobrev defeated Jansson in a de facto silver medal bout.
Bouts
Winner Nation Victory Type Loser Nation Dimitar Dobrev Decision, 3–0 Rune Jansson
Points
Rank Wrestler Nation Wins Losses 2 0 1 1 0 2
References
General