Wrestling at the 1952 Summer Olympics – Men's Greco-Roman heavyweight

The men's Greco-Roman heavyweight competition at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki took place from 24 July to 27 July at Messuhalli. Nations were limited to one competitor.[1]

Men's Greco-Roman heavyweight at the Games of the XV Olympiad
Venue	Messuhalli
Dates	24–27 July
Competitors	10 from 10 nations
Medalists
Johannes Kotkas  Soviet Union Josef Růžička  Czechoslovakia Tauno Kovanen  Finland

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, 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 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.[2][1]

Results

Round 1

Bouts

Winner	Nation	Victory Type	Loser	Nation
Willi Waltner	Germany	Walkover	K. Richmond[note 1]	Great Britain
Antonios Georgoulis	Greece	Fall	Adolfo Ramírez	Argentina
Tauno Kovanen	Finland	Decision, 3–0	Alexandru Şuli	Romania
Josef Růžička	Czechoslovakia	Fall	József Kovács	Hungary
Johannes Kotkas	Soviet Union	Walkover	A. Baarendse[note 1]	Belgium
Bengt Fahlkvist	Sweden	Fall	Guido Fantoni	Italy

Points

Rank	Wrestler	Nation	Start	Earned	Total
1	Bengt Fahlkvist	Sweden	0	0	0
1	Antonios Georgoulis	Greece	0	0	0
1	Johannes Kotkas	Soviet Union	0	0	0
1	Josef Růžička	Czechoslovakia	0	0	0
1	Willi Waltner	Germany	0	0	0
6	Tauno Kovanen	Finland	0	1	1
7	Guido Fantoni	Italy	0	3	3
7	József Kovács	Hungary	0	3	3
7	Adolfo Ramírez	Argentina	0	3	3
7	Alexandru Şuli	Romania	0	3	3

Round 2

Bouts

Winner	Nation	Victory Type	Loser	Nation
Willi Waltner	Germany	Decision, 3–0	Antonios Georgoulis	Greece
Tauno Kovanen	Finland	Decision, 3–0	Adolfo Ramírez	Argentina
Alexandru Şuli	Romania	Decision, 2–1	József Kovács	Hungary
Guido Fantoni	Italy	Decision, 2–1	Josef Růžička	Czechoslovakia
Johannes Kotkas	Soviet Union	Fall	Bengt Fahlkvist	Sweden

Points

Rank	Wrestler	Nation	Start	Earned	Total
1	Johannes Kotkas	Soviet Union	0	0	0
2	Willi Waltner	Germany	0	1	1
3	Tauno Kovanen	Finland	1	1	2
4	Bengt Fahlkvist	Sweden	0	3	3
4	Antonios Georgoulis	Greece	0	3	3
4	Josef Růžička	Czechoslovakia	0	3	3
7	Guido Fantoni	Italy	3	1	4
7	Alexandru Şuli	Romania	3	1	4
9	József Kovács	Hungary	3	3	6
9	Adolfo Ramírez	Argentina	3	3	6

Round 3

Bouts

Winner	Nation	Victory Type	Loser	Nation
	Decision, 3–0
Tauno Kovanen	Finland	Decision, 3–0	Willi Waltner	Germany
Alexandru Şuli	Romania	Decision, 3–0	Antonios Georgoulis	Greece
Josef Růžička	Czechoslovakia	Fall	Bengt Fahlkvist	Sweden
Johannes Kotkas	Soviet Union	Fall	Guido Fantoni	Italy

Points

Rank	Wrestler	Nation	Start	Earned	Total
1	Johannes Kotkas	Soviet Union	0	0	0
2	Tauno Kovanen	Finland	2	1	3
2	Josef Růžička	Czechoslovakia	3	0	3
4	Willi Waltner	Germany	1	3	4
5	Alexandru Şuli	Romania	4	1	5
6	Bengt Fahlkvist	Sweden	3	3	6
6	Antonios Georgoulis	Greece	3	3	6
8	Guido Fantoni	Italy	4	3	7

Round 4

Bouts

Winner	Nation	Victory Type	Loser	Nation
Josef Růžička	Czechoslovakia	Fall	Willi Waltner	Germany
Johannes Kotkas	Soviet Union	Fall	Tauno Kovanen	Finland

Points

Rank	Wrestler	Nation	Start	Earned	Total
1	Johannes Kotkas	Soviet Union	0	0	0
2	Josef Růžička	Czechoslovakia	3	0	3
3	Tauno Kovanen	Finland	3	3	6
4	Willi Waltner	Germany	4	3	7

Medal rounds

Kotkas's victory over Kovanen in round 4 counted for the medal rounds.

Bouts

Winner	Nation	Victory Type	Loser	Nation
Josef Růžička	Czechoslovakia	Fall	Tauno Kovanen	Finland
Johannes Kotkas	Soviet Union	Fall	Josef Růžička	Czechoslovakia

Points

Rank	Wrestler	Nation	Wins	Losses	Start	Earned	Total
	Johannes Kotkas	Soviet Union	2	0	0	0	0
	Josef Růžička	Czechoslovakia	1	1	3	3	6
	Tauno Kovanen	Finland	0	2	6	3	9

Notes

1. Richmond of Great Britain and Baarendse of Belgium are listed as participating by the Official Report, but neither wrestler actually competed—both losing their first-round matches by walkover and not competing thereafter.

References

1. "Wrestling at the 1952 Helsinki Summer Games: Men's Heavyweight, Greco-Roman". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 18 April 2020. Retrieved 6 March 2019.
2. Official Report, p. 381.