Wrestling at the 1956 Summer Olympics – Men's freestyle heavyweight

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.[1]

Men's freestyle heavyweight at the Games of the XVI Olympiad
Venue	Royal Exhibition Building
Dates	28 November–1 December
Competitors	11 from 11 nations
Medalists
Hamit Kaplan  Turkey Yusein Mekhmedov  Bulgaria Taisto Kangasniemi  Finland

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.[2][1]

Results

Round 1

Bouts

Winner	Nation	Victory Type	Loser	Nation
Yusein Mekhmedov	Bulgaria	Decision, 3–0	Hussain Noori	Iran
Ivan Vykhristyuk	Soviet Union	Decision, 3–0	John Da Silva	New Zealand
Ken Richmond	Great Britain	Decision, 3–0	Lila Ram	India
Hamit Kaplan	Turkey	Decision, 2–1	Bill Kerslake	United States
Ray Mitchell	Australia	Decision, 2–1	Saburo Nakao	Japan
Taisto Kangasniemi	Finland	Bye	N/A	N/A

Points

Rank	Wrestler	Nation	Start	Earned	Total
1	Taisto Kangasniemi	Finland	0	0	0
2	Hamit Kaplan	Turkey	0	1	1
2	Yusein Mekhmedov	Bulgaria	0	1	1
2	Ray Mitchell	Australia	0	1	1
2	Ken Richmond	Great Britain	0	1	1
2	Ivan Vykhristyuk	Soviet Union	0	1	1
7	John Da Silva	New Zealand	0	3	3
7	Bill Kerslake	United States	0	3	3
7	Saburo Nakao	Japan	0	3	3
7	Hussain Noori	Iran	0	3	3
7	Lila Ram	India	0	3	3

Round 2

Bouts

Winner	Nation	Victory Type	Loser	Nation
Yusein Mekhmedov	Bulgaria	Fall	Taisto Kangasniemi	Finland
Hussain Noori	Iran	Decision, 3–0	John Da Silva	New Zealand
Ivan Vykhristyuk	Soviet Union	Decision, 3–0	Ken Richmond	Great Britain
Hamit Kaplan	Turkey	Fall	Lila Ram	India
Bill Kerslake	United States	Fall	Ray Mitchell	Australia
Saburo Nakao	Japan	Bye	N/A	N/A

Points

Rank	Wrestler	Nation	Start	Earned	Total
1	Hamit Kaplan	Turkey	1	0	1
1	Yusein Mekhmedov	Bulgaria	1	0	1
3	Ivan Vykhristyuk	Soviet Union	1	1	2
4	Taisto Kangasniemi	Finland	0	3	3
4	Bill Kerslake	United States	3	0	3
4	Saburo Nakao	Japan	3	0	3
7	Ray Mitchell	Australia	1	3	4
7	Hussain Noori	Iran	3	1	4
7	Ken Richmond	Great Britain	1	3	4
10	John Da Silva	New Zealand	3	3	6
10	Lila Ram	India	3	3	6

Round 3

Bouts

Winner	Nation	Victory Type	Loser	Nation
Taisto Kangasniemi	Finland	Fall	Saburo Nakao	Japan
Yusein Mekhmedov	Bulgaria	Decision, 3–0	Ivan Vykhristyuk	Soviet Union
Hamit Kaplan	Turkey	Fall	Hussain Noori	Iran
Ken Richmond	Great Britain	Fall	Bill Kerslake	United States
Ray Mitchell	Australia	Bye	N/A	N/A

Points

Rank	Wrestler	Nation	Start	Earned	Total
1	Hamit Kaplan	Turkey	1	0	1
2	Yusein Mekhmedov	Bulgaria	1	1	2
3	Taisto Kangasniemi	Finland	3	0	3
4	Ray Mitchell	Australia	4	0	4
4	Ken Richmond	Great Britain	4	0	4
6	Ivan Vykhristyuk	Soviet Union	2	3	5
7	Bill Kerslake	United States	3	3	6
7	Saburo Nakao	Japan	3	3	6
9	Hussain Noori	Iran	4	3	7

Round 4

Bouts

Winner	Nation	Victory Type	Loser	Nation
Taisto Kangasniemi	Finland	Fall	Ray Mitchell	Australia
Yusein Mekhmedov	Bulgaria	Decision, 3–0	Ken Richmond	Great Britain
Hamit Kaplan	Turkey	Bye	N/A	N/A

Points

Rank	Wrestler	Nation	Start	Earned	Total
1	Hamit Kaplan	Turkey	1	0	1
2	Taisto Kangasniemi	Finland	3	0	3
2	Yusein Mekhmedov	Bulgaria	2	1	3
4	Ray Mitchell	Australia	4	3	7
4	Ken Richmond	Great Britain	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	Turkey	Decision, 3–0	Yusein Mekhmedov	Bulgaria
Hamit Kaplan	Turkey	Decision, 3–0	Taisto Kangasniemi	Finland

Points

Rank	Wrestler	Nation	Wins	Losses
	Hamit Kaplan	Turkey	2	0
	Yusein Mekhmedov	Bulgaria	1	1
	Taisto Kangasniemi	Finland	0	2

References

1. "Wrestling at the 1956 Melbourne Summer Games: Men's Freestyle Heavyweight". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 18 April 2020. Retrieved 14 March 2019.
2. Official Report, p. 672.