The men's freestyle heavyweight competition at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne took place from 28 November to 1 December at the Royal Exhibition Building. 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, 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 Husein Mehmedov Decision, 3–0 Hossein Nouri Ivan Vykhristyuk Decision, 3–0 John Da Silva Ken Richmond Decision, 3–0 Lila Ram Hamit Kaplan Decision, 2–1 Bill Kerslake Ray Mitchell Decision, 2–1 Saburo Nakao Taisto Kangasniemi Bye N/A N/A
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 2 0 1 1 7 0 3 3 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 Husein Mehmedov Fall Taisto Kangasniemi Hossein Nouri Decision, 3–0 John Da Silva Ivan Vykhristyuk Decision, 3–0 Ken Richmond Hamit Kaplan Fall Lila Ram Bill Kerslake Fall Ray Mitchell Saburo Nakao Bye N/A N/A
Points
Rank Wrestler Nation Start Earned Total 1 1 0 1 1 1 0 1 3 1 1 2 4 0 3 3 4 3 0 3 4 3 0 3 7 1 3 4 7 3 1 4 7 1 3 4 10 3 3 6 10 3 3 6
Round 3
Bouts
Winner Nation Victory Type Loser Nation Taisto Kangasniemi Fall Saburo Nakao Husein Mehmedov Decision, 3–0 Ivan Vykhristyuk Hamit Kaplan Fall Hossein Nouri Ken Richmond Fall Bill Kerslake Ray Mitchell Bye N/A N/A
Points
Rank Wrestler Nation Start Earned Total 1 1 0 1 2 1 1 2 3 3 0 3 4 4 0 4 4 4 0 4 6 2 3 5 7 3 3 6 7 3 3 6 9 4 3 7
Round 4
Bouts
Winner Nation Victory Type Loser Nation Taisto Kangasniemi Fall Ray Mitchell Husein Mehmedov Decision, 3–0 Ken Richmond Hamit Kaplan Bye N/A N/A
Points
Rank Wrestler Nation Start Earned Total 1 1 0 1 2 3 0 3 2 2 1 3 4 4 3 7 4 4 3 7
Medal rounds
Mekhmedov's victory over Kangasniemi in round 2 counted for the medal rounds. That victory essentially decided the silver medal, as Kaplan defeated both of the other two wrestlers to take the gold medal.
Bouts
Winner Nation Victory Type Loser Nation Hamit Kaplan Decision, 3–0 Husein Mehmedov Hamit Kaplan Decision, 3–0 Taisto Kangasniemi
Points
Rank Wrestler Nation Wins Losses 2 0 1 1 0 2
References
General