The men's freestyle middleweight 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. Middleweight was the third-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, 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 Viljo Punkari Fall Muhammad Faiz Dan Hodge Fall George Farquhar Bakshish Singh Decision, 3–0 William Davies Bengt Lindblad Decision, 3–0 Manie van Zyl Hans Sterr Fall Nicolas Arcales Nikola Stanchev Decision, 3–0 Georgy Skhirtladze Abbas Zandi Decision, 3–0 Kazuo Katsuramoto İsmet Atlı Bye N/A N/A
Points
Rank Wrestler Nation Start Earned Total 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 5 0 1 1 5 0 1 1 5 0 1 1 5 0 1 1 9 0 3 3 9 0 3 3 9 0 3 3 9 0 3 3 9 0 3 3 9 0 3 3 9 0 3 3
Round 2
Punkari withdrew after his bout.
Bouts
Winner Nation Victory Type Loser Nation İsmet Atlı Fall Muhammad Faiz Dan Hodge Decision, 3–0 Viljo Punkari William Davies Decision, 3–0 George Farquhar Manie van Zyl Decision, 3–0 Bakshish Singh Hans Sterr Fall Bengt Lindblad Georgy Skhirtladze Fall Nicolas Arcales Kazuo Katsuramoto Fall Nikola Stanchev Abbas Zandi Bye N/A N/A
Points
Rank Wrestler Nation Start Earned Total 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 3 0 1 1 3 1 0 1 5 3 0 3 5 3 0 3 7 3 1 4 7 1 3 4 7 1 3 4 7 1 3 4 7 3 1 4 12 0 3 3* 13 3 3 6 13 3 3 6 13 3 3 6
Round 3
Bouts
Winner Nation Victory Type Loser Nation İsmet Atlı Decision, 3–0 Abbas Zandi Dan Hodge Fall William Davies Bengt Lindblad Fall Bakshish Singh Georgy Skhirtladze Fall Manie van Zyl Nikola Stanchev Fall Hans Sterr Kazuo Katsuramoto Bye N/A N/A
Points
Rank Wrestler Nation Start Earned Total 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 1 3 3 0 3 3 3 0 3 3 0 3 3 6 4 0 4 6 4 0 4 6 1 3 4 9 4 3 7 9 4 3 7 9 4 3 7
Round 4
Bouts
Winner Nation Victory Type Loser Nation İsmet Atlı Decision, 3–0 Kazuo Katsuramoto Dan Hodge Fall Abbas Zandi Nikola Stanchev Fall Bengt Lindblad Georgy Skhirtladze Fall Hans Sterr
Points
Rank Wrestler Nation Start Earned Total 1 1 0 1 2 1 1 2 3 3 0 3 4 4 0 4 5 3 3 6 5 3 3 6 7 4 3 7 7 4 3 7
Round 5
Bouts
Winner Nation Victory Type Loser Nation Georgy Skhirtladze Decision, 2–1 İsmet Atlı Nikola Stanchev Fall Dan Hodge
Points
Rank Wrestler Nation Start Earned Total 1 1 3 4 1 3 1 4 1 4 0 4 4 2 3 5
Medal rounds
Stanchev's victories over Skhirtladze in round 1 and Hodge in round 5 counted for the medal rounds, giving the Bulgarian wrestler the gold medal with a 2–0 record against the other medalists. Hodge defeated Skhirtladze in a de facto silver medal match.
Bouts
Winner Nation Victory Type Loser Nation Dan Hodge Fall Georgy Skhirtladze
Points
Rank Wrestler Nation Wins Losses 2 0 1 1 0 2
References
General