Leslie Cheetham

Freestyle wrestler Leslie Cheetham won the 1951 British bantamweight title. Shortly afterwards he dropped a weight division to flyweight in the hope of making the British squad for the 1952 Olympics. Shortly before the Helsinki Games he was beaten in the British flyweight final by Walter Pilling. When the GB squad was announced, the British Amateur Wrestling Association could not decide whether Pilling or Cheetham should get the flyweight berth and announced that the two men should contest a series of bouts to decide who got the call. Pilling declined on the grounds that he was the reigning British champion, however, and all other members of the British squad were the reigning champions. The 17-year-old Pilling would eventually make his Olympic début at Roma in 1960.

When he got to Helsinki, Bolton cotton worker Cheetham nearly missed his opening bout against Germany’s Heini Weber as he was 5lb (2.2 kg) overweight. Cheetham managed to shed the pounds in time but was weakened by the weight loss and was no match for Weber.