The men's freestyle welterweight competition at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki took place from 20 July to 23 July at Messuhalli. Nations were limited to one competitor. Welterweight was the fourth-heaviest category, including wrestlers weighing .
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, 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.
Results
Round 1
Bouts
Winner Nation Victory Type Loser Nation Per Berlin Decision, 3–0 Daniel Hauser Anton Mackowiak Decision, 3–0 Arvedo Cecchini Alberto Longarella Decision, 2–1 Nick Mohammed William Smith Fall Antonio Rosado Cyril Martin Decision, 3–0 Vladislav Sekal Mohamed Hassan Moussa Fall Jos De Jong Tsugio Yamazaki Decision, 2–1 Jean-Baptiste Leclerc Bev Scott Decision, 3–0 Don Irvine Mehmet Ali Islioğlu Decision, 2–1 Vasyl Rybalko Abdollah Mojtabavi Decision, 2–1 Aleksanteri Keisala
Points
Rank Wrestler Nation Start Earned Total 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 3 0 1 1 3 0 1 1 3 0 1 1 3 0 1 1 3 0 1 1 3 0 1 1 3 0 1 1 3 0 1 1 11 0 3 3 11 0 3 3 11 0 3 3 11 0 3 3 11 0 3 3 11 0 3 3 11 0 3 3 11 0 3 3 11 0 3 3 11 0 3 3
Round 2
It is unclear why Leclerc was not eliminated but instead continued on to round 3.
Bouts
Winner Nation Victory Type Loser Nation Anton Mackowiak Decision, 3–0 Daniel Hauser Per Berlin Fall Arvedo Cecchini William Smith Decision, 2–0 Nick Mohammed Alberto Longarella Fall Antonio Rosado Vladislav Sekal Fall Jos De Jong Mohamed Hassan Moussa Fall Cyril Martin Tsugio Yamazaki Decision, 3–0 Don Irvine Bev Scott Decision, 2–1 Jean-Baptiste Leclerc Abdollah Mojtabavi Decision, 2–1 Vasyl Rybalko Aleksanteri Keisala Decision, 2–1 Mehmet Ali Islioğlu
Points
Rank Wrestler Nation Start Earned Total 1 0 0 0 2 1 0 1 2 1 0 1 2 0 1 1 5 1 1 2 5 1 1 2 5 1 1 2 5 1 1 2 9 3 0 3 10 1 3 4 10 3 1 4 10 1 3 4 13 3 3 6 14 3 3 6 14 3 3 6 14 3 3 6 14 3 3 6 14 3 3 6 14 3 3 6 14 3 3 6
Round 3
Bouts
Winner Nation Victory Type Loser Nation Per Berlin Decision, 3–0 Anton Mackowiak William Smith Decision, 3–0 Alberto Longarella Vladislav Sekal Fall Mohamed Hassan Moussa Tsugio Yamazaki Decision, 2–1 Cyril Martin Mehmet Ali Islioğlu Decision, 3–0 Jean-Baptiste Leclerc Abdollah Mojtabavi Decision, 3–0 Bev Scott Aleksanteri Keisala Bye N/A N/A
Points
Rank Wrestler Nation Start Earned Total 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 2 3 2 1 3 3 0 3 3 3 3 0 3 3 2 1 3 7 4 0 4 7 1 3 4 9 4 1 5 9 2 3 5 9 2 3 5 12 4 3 7 13 6 3 9
Round 4
Bouts
Winner Nation Victory Type Loser Nation Per Berlin Decision, 3–0 Aleksanteri Keisala Alberto Longarella Decision, 2–1 Vladislav Sekal William Smith Fall Mohamed Hassan Moussa Abdollah Mojtabavi Decision, 3–0 Tsugio Yamazaki
Points
Rank Wrestler Nation Start Earned Total 1 2 0 2 2 2 1 3 3 3 1 4 4 4 1 5 5 3 3 6 5 3 3 6 5 3 3 6 8 4 3 7
Medal rounds
None of the medalists had faced each other, so each wrestled the other two. Each won a bout and lost a bout, so bad points were used to break the three-way 1–1 tie. Smith had won two bouts by fall and two by decision coming into the medal round, leading at 2 points. Berlin had taken only one bout by fall and three by decision before the medal round, coming in at second place with 3 points. All four of Mojtabavi's pre-medal round wins had been by decision, so he had 4 points and came in at third place. Each wrestler earned 4 points in the medal rounds (1 win by decision, 1 loss), so their rank order did not change. Smith took gold, Berlin silver, and Mojtabavi bronze.
Bouts
Winner Nation Victory Type Loser Nation Per Berlin Decision, 3–0 William Smith Abdollah Mojtabavi Decision, 3–0 Per Berlin William Smith Decision, 3–0 Abdollah Mojtabavi
Points
Rank Wrestler Nation Start Earned Total 2 4 6 3 4 7 4 4 8
References
General