Light-Heavyweight, Greco-Roman (≤84 kg), Men

The favorite was Aleksey Mishin of Russia, the 2004 Olympic and 2007 World Champion. In a huge upset, he was defeated in the quarters by Italy’s Andrea Minguzzi, who had placed only 45th at the 2007 Worlds, but had won bronze medals at the 2007-08 Europeans. Minguzzi then defeated Swede Ara Abrahamian, the 2004 Olympic silver medalist, in the semi-finals. The final matched Minguzzi against Hungarian Zoltán Fodor, who was even less well-known than Minguzzi. They split the first two periods but Minguzzi won the third period to take the gold medal, the first by an Italian in Olympic wrestling since 1988 (Vincenzo Maenza).

Abrahamian went through the losers’ bracket to seemingly win a bronze medal, but he was not happy with the result, nor the judging in his semi loss to Minguzzi. The Sweden team protested that result, but that protest was not allowed. During the medal ceremony, Abrahamian threw his medal to the mat and stormed out in protest of the decision. He was stripped of his medal and disqualified, although The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) later ruled that FILA should have allowed Abrahamian’s appeal. He had been banned from wrestling for two years by FILA but that ban was annulled, however, the bronze medal was not reinstated by FILA. No second bronze medal was awarded after Abrahamian’s disqualification.