| | Event type

Lightweight, Freestyle (≤68 kg), Men

Date	29 – 30 July 1996
Status	Olympic
Location	Georgia World Congress Center, Atlanta, Georgia (Hall G)
Participants	19 from 19 countries
Format	Single-elimination tournament with classification rounds for placements.

Two-time defending champion Arsen Fadzayev of the Soviet Union was now representing his native Uzbekistan. The two favorites were 1995 World Champion Arayik Gevorgyan and Russian Vadim Bogiyev, who had won the last three European titles. Bogiyev had to open against Fadzayev, his former coach, but defeated him 3-1 to move on. Gevorgyan lost his semi-final match to American Townsend Saunders, the 1994 Goodwill Games champion, and gold medalist at the Pan American Games in 1991 and 1995. Saunders met Bogiyev for the gold medal and the match was very close, going into overtime, where it remained tied at the end of 8 minutes. Bogiyev was awarded the gold medal because he had had only two passivity calls to three for Saunders.

Pos	Number	Competitor	NOC	CP	TP
1	19	Vadim Bogiyev	RUS	–	–	Gold
2	16	Townsend Saunders	USA	–	–	Silver
3	3	Zaza Zazirov	UKR	–	–	Bronze
4	11	Yosvany Sánchez	CUB	–	–
5	13	Arayik Gevorgyan	ARM	–	–
6	9	Hwang Sang-Ho	KOR	–	–
7	6	Küllo Kõiv	EST	–	–
8	14	Ahmad Al-Aosta	SYR	–	–
9	12	Aleh Hohal	BLR	8	10
10	2	Akbar Fallah	IRI	8	9
11	7	János Fórizs	HUN	5	15
12	17	Craig Roberts	CAN	5	13
13	1	Arsen Fadzayev	UZB	5	12
14	8	Elşad Allahverdiyev	AZE	5	7
15	15	Yüksel Şanlı	TUR	2	2
16	18	Richard Weiss	AUS	1	2
17	5	Félix Diédhiou	SEN	1	1
=18	10	Paulo Ibire	ARG	0	0
=18	4	Ibo Oziti	NGR	0	0

Round One

Date	29 July 1996

Match	Date/Time	Location	Competitor	NOC	Result	Competitor	NOC
Match #1	29 Jul	Hall G	Arsen Fadzayev	UZB	Decision (2-2) (8:00)	Akbar Fallah	IRI
Match #2	29 Jul	Hall G	Zaza Zazirov	UKR	Grand superiority (10-0) (3:13)	Ibo Oziti	NGR
Match #3	29 Jul	Hall G	Küllo Kõiv	EST	Fall (12-0) (1:03)	Félix Diédhiou	SEN
Match #4	29 Jul	Hall G	Elşad Allahverdiyev	AZE	Decision (3-0) (5:00)	János Fórizs	HUN
Match #5	29 Jul	Hall G	Hwang Sang-Ho	KOR	Decision (7-0) (5:00)	Paulo Ibire	ARG
Match #6	29 Jul	Hall G	Aleh Hohal	BLR	Decision (3-1) (5:10)	Yosvany Sánchez	CUB
Match #7	29 Jul	Hall G	Arayik Gevorgyan	ARM	Decision (9-1) (5:00)	Ahmad Al-Aosta	SYR
Match #8	29 Jul	Hall G	Townsend Saunders	USA	Decision (3-1) (5:36)	Yüksel Şanlı	TUR
Match #9	29 Jul	Hall G	Craig Roberts	CAN	Grand superiority (12-2) (3:45)	Richard Weiss	AUS
Match #10	29 Jul	Hall G	Vadim Bogiyev	RUS

Round Two

Date	29 July 1996

Match	Date/Time	Location	Competitor	NOC	Result	Competitor	NOC
Match #1	29 Jul	Hall G	Vadim Bogiyev	RUS	Decision (3-1) (6:24)	Arsen Fadzayev	UZB
Match #2	29 Jul	Hall G	Zaza Zazirov	UKR	Decision (5-0) (5:00)	Küllo Kõiv	EST
Match #3	29 Jul	Hall G	Hwang Sang-Ho	KOR	Decision (5-3) (5:00)	Elşad Allahverdiyev	AZE
Match #4	29 Jul	Hall G	Arayik Gevorgyan	ARM	Decision (3-2) (5:38)	Aleh Hohal	BLR
Match #5	29 Jul	Hall G	Townsend Saunders	USA	Decision (3-1) (5:00)	Craig Roberts	CAN

Quarter-Finals

Date	30 July 1996

Match	Date/Time	Location	Competitor	NOC	Result	Competitor	NOC
Match #1	30 Jul	Hall G	Vadim Bogiyev	RUS	Decision (6-4) (5:00)	Zaza Zazirov	UKR
Match #2	30 Jul	Hall G	Hwang Sang-Ho	KOR
Match #3	30 Jul	Hall G	Arayik Gevorgyan	ARM
Match #4	30 Jul	Hall G	Townsend Saunders	USA

Semi-Finals

Date	30 July 1996

Match	Date/Time	Location	Competitor	NOC	Result	Competitor	NOC
Match #1	30 Jul	Hall G	Vadim Bogiyev	RUS	Decision (3-2) (5:00)	Hwang Sang-Ho	KOR
Match #2	30 Jul	Hall G	Townsend Saunders	USA	Decision (4-0) (5:00)	Arayik Gevorgyan	ARM

Final Round

Date	30 July 1996

Match	Date/Time	Location	Competitor	NOC	Result	Competitor	NOC
Match 1/2	30 Jul	Hall G	Vadim Bogiyev	RUS	Decision (1-1) (8:00)	Townsend Saunders	USA
Match 3/4	30 Jul	Hall G	Zaza Zazirov	UKR	Decision (8-6) (5:00)	Yosvany Sánchez	CUB
Match 5/6	30 Jul	Hall G	Arayik Gevorgyan	ARM	Decision (0-0) (8:00)	Hwang Sang-Ho	KOR
Match 7/8	30 Jul	Hall G	Küllo Kõiv	EST	Decision (7-2) (5:00)	Ahmad Al-Aosta	SYR

Classification Round Two

Date	29 July 1996

Match	Date/Time	Location	Competitor	NOC	Result	Competitor	NOC
Match #1	29 Jul	Hall G	Akbar Fallah	IRI	Decision (1-0) (8:00)	Ibo Oziti	NGR
Match #2	29 Jul	Hall G	János Fórizs	HUN	Grand superiority (13-1) (2:35)	Félix Diédhiou	SEN
Match #3	29 Jul	Hall G	Yosvany Sánchez	CUB	Grand superiority (10-0) (4:29)	Paulo Ibire	ARG
Match #4	29 Jul	Hall G	Ahmad Al-Aosta	SYR	Decision (4-1) (5:00)	Yüksel Şanlı	TUR
Match #5	29 Jul	Hall G	Richard Weiss	AUS

Classification Round Three

Date	29 July 1996

Match	Date/Time	Location	Competitor	NOC	Result	Competitor	NOC
Match #1	29 Jul	Hall G	Akbar Fallah	IRI	Decision (5-0) (5:00)	Richard Weiss	AUS
Match #2	29 Jul	Hall G	Yosvany Sánchez	CUB	Decision (6-2) (5:00)	János Fórizs	HUN
Match #3	29 Jul	Hall G	Ahmad Al-Aosta	SYR	Decision (11-9) (5:00)	Arsen Fadzayev	UZB
Match #4	29 Jul	Hall G	Küllo Kõiv	EST	Decision (5-1) (5:00)	Elşad Allahverdiyev	AZE
Match #5	29 Jul	Hall G	Aleh Hohal	BLR	Decision (4-0) (5:00)	Craig Roberts	CAN

Classification Round Four

Date	30 July 1996

Match	Date/Time	Location	Competitor	NOC	Result	Competitor	NOC
Match #1	30 Jul	Hall G	Yosvany Sánchez	CUB	Decision (3-1) (5:55)	Akbar Fallah	IRI
Match #2	30 Jul	Hall G	Küllo Kõiv	EST	Decision (4-1) (5:00)	Ahmad Al-Aosta	SYR
Match #3	30 Jul	Hall G	Zaza Zazirov	UKR	Decision (6-1) (5:00)	Aleh Hohal	BLR

Classification Round Five

Date	30 July 1996

Match	Date/Time	Location	Competitor	NOC	Result	Competitor	NOC
Match #1	30 Jul	Hall G	Yosvany Sánchez	CUB	Decision (6-0) (5:00)	Küllo Kõiv	EST
Match #2	30 Jul	Hall G	Zaza Zazirov	UKR

Classification Round Six

Date	30 July 1996

Match	Date/Time	Location	Competitor	NOC	Result	Competitor	NOC
Match #1	30 Jul	Hall G	Zaza Zazirov	UKR	Fall (7-0) (4:55)	Hwang Sang-Ho	KOR
Match #2	30 Jul	Hall G	Yosvany Sánchez	CUB	Decision (8-4) (5:00)	Arayik Gevorgyan	ARM