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Lightweight, Greco-Roman (≤60 kilograms), Men

Date12 August 2008
StatusOlympic
LocationZhongguo Nongye Daxue Tiyuguan, Beijing
Participants20 from 20 countries
FormatSingle elimination tournament. Competitors losing to the finalists entered repechage tournament for bronze medals.

Because FILA still refused to seed wrestling draws, many of the favorites met in early rounds. Armenian-born Bulgarian Armen Nazaryan, a two-time Olympic gold medalist in 1996 and 2000, met the 2007 World Champion, Georgian Davit Bedinadze, in the first round and eliminated him. Nazaryan then defeated Makoto Sasamoto of Japan, the 2007 World silver medalist, taking three periods to win. Nazaryan then lost to Azerbaijani Vitaliy Rəhimov, however, the 2005 European Champion, and was eliminated. Defending champion Jeong Ji-Hyeon of Korea also lost in the quarter-finals, going out against Kazakh Nurbakyt Tengizbayev, who then lost to Rəhimov. The final came down to Rəhimov against 19-year-old Russian Islam-Beka Albiyev, bronze medalist at the 2007 World Cup. Albiyev won fairly easily, taking two straight periods without giving up a point, and at 19 years, 227 days, became the youngest Olympic gold medalist in Greco-Roman wrestling, and the second youngest male gold medalist in Olympic wrestling, after Yugoslav Macedonian Šaban Trstena, who was six days younger in 1984. All four medalists were from former Soviet republics.

That was how the event and the results seemed to have ended. In 2015, however, the IOC began re-testing samples from the 2008 Beijing and 2012 London Olympics, using newer, more advanced testing techniques, in an effort to find those who had used performance enhancing drugs (PEDs), but in whom it could not be detected at the time of those Olympics. This was one of the many events affected.

In November 2016, Vitaliy Rəhimov (AZE) was revealed to have a positive test for turinabol (dehydrochloromethyltestosterone), and was disqualified, losing his silver medal. Nurbakyt Tengizbayev of Kazakhstan was advanced to the silver medal, and Sheng Jiang of China was advanced to the bronze medal.

PosWrestlerNOC
1Islam-Beka AlbiyevRUSGold
2Nurbakyt TengizbayevKAZSilver
=3Ruslan TyumenbayevKGZBronze
=3Sheng JiangCHNBronze
5Roberto MonzónCUB
6Armen NazaryanBUL
7Eusebiu DiaconuROU
8Jeong Ji-HyeonKOR
9Makoto SasamotoJPN
10Dilshod AripovUZB
11Soner SucuTUR
12Sébastien HidalgoFRA
13Ashraf El-GharablyEGY
14Davor ŠtefanekSRB
15Davit BedinadzeGEO
16Karen MnatsakanyanARM
17Jarkko Ala-HuikkuFIN
18Stig André BergeNOR
19Yury DubininBLR
DQVitali RəhimovAZE1

Round One (12 August 2008)

Winner of each match advanced to round two. Losers to eventual finalists advanced to repêchage round one.

Match #1 Islam-Beka AlbiyevRUS
Match #2 Soner SucuTUR
Match #3 Roberto MonzónCUB
Match #4 Sébastien HidalgoFRA
Match #5 Davor ŠtefanekSRB
Match #6 Dilshod AripovUZB
Match #7 Ruslan TyumenbayevKGZ
Match #8 Jarkko Ala-HuikkuFIN
Match #9 Stig André BergeNOR
Match #10 Nurbakyt TengizbayevKAZ
Match #11 Jeong Ji-HyeonKOR
Match #12 Yury DubininBLR
Match #13 2 Sheng JiangCHN Vitali RəhimovAZE 3
Match #14 Eusebiu DiaconuROU Ashraf El-GharablyEGY
Match #15 Makoto SasamotoJPN Karen MnatsakanyanARM
Match #16 Armen NazaryanBUL Davit BedinadzeGEO

Round Two (12 August 2008)

Winner of each match advanced to quarter-finals. Losers to eventual finalists advanced to repêchage round one.

Match #1 Islam-Beka AlbiyevRUS Soner SucuTUR
Match #2 Roberto MonzónCUB Sébastien HidalgoFRA
Match #3 Dilshod AripovUZB Davor ŠtefanekSRB
Match #4 Ruslan TyumenbayevKGZ Jarkko Ala-HuikkuFIN
Match #5 Nurbakyt TengizbayevKAZ Stig André BergeNOR
Match #6 Jeong Ji-HyeonKOR Yury DubininBLR
Match #7 4 Eusebiu DiaconuROU Vitali RəhimovAZE 5
Match #8 Armen NazaryanBUL Makoto SasamotoJPN

Quarter-finals (12 August 2008)

Winner of each match advanced to semi-finals. Losers to eventual finalists advanced to repêchage round two.

Match #1 Islam-Beka AlbiyevRUS Roberto MonzónCUB
Match #2 Ruslan TyumenbayevKGZ Dilshod AripovUZB
Match #3 Nurbakyt TengizbayevKAZ Jeong Ji-HyeonKOR
Match #4 6 Armen NazaryanBUL Vitali RəhimovAZE 7

Semi-finals (12 August 2008)

Winner of each match advanced to final. Losers advanced to repêchage final.

Match #1 Islam-Beka AlbiyevRUS Ruslan TyumenbayevKGZ
Match #2 8 Nurbakyt TengizbayevKAZ Vitali RəhimovAZE 9

Repêchage Round One (12 August 2008)

Winner of each match advanced to repêchage round two.

Match #1 Soner SucuTUR
Match #2 Sheng JiangCHN Eusebiu DiaconuROU

Repêchage Round Two (12 August 2008)

Winner of each match advanced to repêchage final.

Match #1 Roberto MonzónCUB Soner SucuTUR
Match #2 Sheng JiangCHN Armen NazaryanBUL

Repêchage Final (12 August 2008)

Match #1 Ruslan TyumenbayevKGZ Roberto MonzónCUB
Match #2 Nurbakyt TengizbayevKAZ Sheng JiangCHN

Final (12 August 2008)

Match 1/2 10 Islam-Beka AlbiyevRUS Vitali RəhimovAZE 11