The men's Greco-Roman heavyweight 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. 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, as modified in 1952 (adding medal rounds and making all losses worth three points—from 1936 to 1948 losses by split decision only cost two points). 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 Hamit Kaplan Decision, 3–0 Adelmo Bulgarelli Antonios Georgoulis Decision, 3–0 Joseph Zammit Yusein Mekhmedov Decision, 3–0 Taisto Kangasniemi Bertil Antonsson Fall Dale Lewis Anatoly Parfyonov Decision, 2–1 Wilfried Dietrich
Points
Rank Wrestler Nation Start Earned Total 1 0 0 0 2 0 1 1 2 0 1 1 2 0 1 1 2 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 Adelmo Bulgarelli Fall Joseph Zammit Hamit Kaplan Decision, 3–0 Antonios Georgoulis Taisto Kangasniemi Fall Dale Lewis Wilfried Dietrich Fall Yusein Mekhmedov Bertil Antonsson Decision, 3–0 Anatoly Parfyonov
Points
Rank Wrestler Nation Start Earned Total 1 0 1 1 2 1 1 2 3 3 0 3 3 3 0 3 3 3 0 3 6 1 3 4 6 1 3 4 6 1 3 4 9 3 3 6 9 3 3 6
Round 3
Bouts
Winner Nation Victory Type Loser Nation Adelmo Bulgarelli Fall Antonios Georgoulis Hamit Kaplan Decision, 2–1 Taisto Kangasniemi Anatoly Parfyonov Forfeit Yusein Mekhmedov Wilfried Dietrich Decision, 3–0 Bertil Antonsson
Points
Rank Wrestler Nation Start Earned Total 1 2 1 3 1 3 0 3 3 1 3 4 3 3 1 4 3 4 0 4 6 3 3 6 7 4 3 7 7 4 3 7
Round 4
Bouts
Winner Nation Victory Type Loser Nation Adelmo Bulgarelli Fall Bertil Antonsson Wilfried Dietrich Decision, 3–0 Hamit Kaplan Anatoly Parfyonov Bye N/A N/A
Points
Rank Wrestler Nation Start Earned Total 1 3 0 3 2 4 0 4 3 4 1 5 4 3 3 6 5 4 3 7
Medal rounds
Parfyonov's victory over Dietrich in round 1 counted for the medal rounds. Parfyonov faced Bulgarelli in the medal rounds, winning the bout to secure the gold medal at 2–0 against the other medalists. Dietrich then also defeated Bulgarelli to earn silver at 1–1, with Bulgarelli earning the bronze at 0–2 against the other medalists.
Bouts
Winner Nation Victory Type Loser Nation Anatoly Parfyonov Decision, 3–0 Adelmo Bulgarelli Wilfried Dietrich Decision, 3–0 Adelmo Bulgarelli
Points
Rank Wrestler Nation Wins Losses 2 0 1 1 0 2
References
General