Wrestling at the 1972 Summer Olympics

Dates 27 August – 10 September 1972
Medal Events 20

The 1972 wrestling events were held at the Ringer-Judo-Halle in München, which also hosted the judo competition. This was one of 20 buildings that were part of a complex termed the Messegelände, which hosted multiple sports in 1972. The Ringer-Judo-Halle was specifically Hall 14 of the Messegelände, but it was the only building newly built for the 1972 Olympics

The wrestling program expanded in 1972 with the addition of two new events in both freestyle and Greco-Roman, giving the 1972 Olympics 20 wrestling events, or 10 in each style. A light-flyweight class was added as well as a super-heavyweight class for both styles. The tournament was again held by a negative (bad) points system, with the same system used as in 1968, with 6 points eliminating a wrestler. Scoring was as follows: win by fall – 0.0 points, win by superior decision – 0.5 points, win by decision – 1.0 points, draw – 2.5 points, loss by decision – 3.0 points, loss by superior decision – 3.5 points, and a loss by fall – 4.0 points. The negative (bad) point system was effectively a double elimination tournament. When three wrestlers remained in any class, they entered a medal round-robin competition, with previous match results carried over.

The Soviet Union crushed the competition in 1972 wrestling, winning 14 medals and 9 events. They led both the freestyle and Greco-Roman medal tables, winning 8 medals and 5 golds in freestyle, and 6 medals and 4 golds in Greco-Roman.

Events

Event Status Date Participants NOCs
Light-Flyweight, Greco-Roman (≤48 kilograms), Men Olympic 5 – 10 September 1972 20 20
Flyweight, Greco-Roman (≤52 kilograms), Men Olympic 5 – 10 September 1972 21 21
Bantamweight, Greco-Roman (≤57 kilograms), Men Olympic 5 – 10 September 1972 29 29
Featherweight, Greco-Roman (≤62 kilograms), Men Olympic 5 – 10 September 1972 19 19
Lightweight, Greco-Roman (≤68 kilograms), Men Olympic 5 – 10 September 1972 23 23
Welterweight, Greco-Roman (≤74 kilograms), Men Olympic 6 – 10 September 1972 20 20
Middleweight, Greco-Roman (≤82 kilograms), Men Olympic 6 – 10 September 1972 20 20
Light-Heavyweight, Greco-Roman (≤90 kilograms), Men Olympic 6 – 10 September 1972 13 13
Heavyweight, Greco-Roman (≤100 kilograms), Men Olympic 6 – 10 September 1972 14 14
Super-Heavyweight, Greco-Roman (>100 kilograms), Men Olympic 6 – 10 September 1972 12 12
Light-Flyweight, Freestyle (≤48 kilograms), Men Olympic 27 – 31 August 1972 14 14
Flyweight, Freestyle (≤52 kilograms), Men Olympic 27 – 31 August 1972 24 24
Bantamweight, Freestyle (≤57 kilograms), Men Olympic 27 – 31 August 1972 28 28
Featherweight, Freestyle (≤62 kilograms), Men Olympic 27 – 31 August 1972 26 26
Lightweight, Freestyle (≤68 kilograms), Men Olympic 27 – 31 August 1972 25 25
Welterweight, Freestyle (≤74 kilograms), Men Olympic 27 – 31 August 1972 25 25
Middleweight, Freestyle (≤82 kilograms), Men Olympic 27 – 31 August 1972 24 24
Light-Heavyweight, Freestyle (≤90 kilograms), Men Olympic 27 – 31 August 1972 23 23
Heavyweight, Freestyle (≤100 kilograms), Men Olympic 27 – 31 August 1972 16 16
Super-Heavyweight, Freestyle (>100 kilograms), Men Olympic 27 – 31 August 1972 13 13
388 (388/0) 49 (49/0)

Medals

Event Gold Silver Bronze
Light-Flyweight, Greco-Roman, Men Gheorghe BerceanuROU Rahim AliabadiIRI Stefan AngelovBUL
Flyweight, Greco-Roman, Men Petar KirovBUL Koichiro HirayamaJPN Giuseppe BognanniITA
Bantamweight, Greco-Roman, Men Rustem KazakovURS Hans-Jürgen VeilFRG Risto BjörlinFIN
Featherweight, Greco-Roman, Men Georgi MarkovBUL Heinz-Helmut WehlingGDR Kazimierz LipieńPOL
Lightweight, Greco-Roman, Men Shamil KhisamutdinovURS Stoyan ApostolovBUL Gian Matteo RanziITA
Welterweight, Greco-Roman, Men Vítězslav MáchaTCH Petros GalaktopoulosGRE Jan KarlssonSWE
Middleweight, Greco-Roman, Men Csaba HegedűsHUN Anatoly NazarenkoURS Milan NenadićYUG
Light-Heavyweight, Greco-Roman, Men Valery RezantsevURS Josip ČorakYUG Czesław KwiecińskiPOL
Heavyweight, Greco-Roman, Men Nicolae MartinescuROU Nikolay YakovenkoURS Ferenc KissHUN
Super-Heavyweight, Greco-Roman, Men Anatoly RoshchinURS Aleksandar TomovBUL Victor DolipschiROU
Light-Flyweight, Freestyle, Men Roman DmitriyevURS Ognyan NikolovBUL Ibrahim JavadiIRI
Flyweight, Freestyle, Men Kiyomi KatoJPN Arsen AlakhverdiyevURS Kim Gwong-HyongPRK
Bantamweight, Freestyle, Men Hideaki YanagidaJPN Rich SandersUSA László KlingaHUN
Featherweight, Freestyle, Men Zagalav AbdulbekovURS Vehbi AkdağTUR Ivan KrastevBUL
Lightweight, Freestyle, Men Dan GableUSA Kikuo WadaJPN Ruslan AshuraliyevURS
Welterweight, Freestyle, Men Wayne WellsUSA Jan KarlssonSWE Adolf SegerFRG
Middleweight, Freestyle, Men Levan TediashviliURS John PetersonUSA Vasile IorgaROU
Light-Heavyweight, Freestyle, Men Ben PetersonUSA Gennady StrakhovURS Károly BajkóHUN
Heavyweight, Freestyle, Men Ivan YaryginURS Khorloogiin BayanmönkhMGL József CsatáriHUN
Super-Heavyweight, Freestyle, Men Aliaksandr MiadvedURS Osman DuralievBUL Chris TaylorUSA

Medal table

NOC Gold Silver Bronze Total
Soviet Union URS 9 4 1 14
United States USA 3 2 1 6
Bulgaria BUL 2 4 2 8
Japan JPN 2 2 0 4
Romania ROU 2 0 2 4
Hungary HUN 1 0 4 5
Czechoslovakia TCH 1 0 0 1
Islamic Republic of Iran IRI 0 1 1 2
Sweden SWE 0 1 1 2
West Germany FRG 0 1 1 2
Yugoslavia YUG 0 1 1 2
East Germany GDR 0 1 0 1
Greece GRE 0 1 0 1
Mongolia MGL 0 1 0 1
Türkiye TUR 0 1 0 1
Italy ITA 0 0 2 2
Poland POL 0 0 2 2
Democratic People's Republic of Korea PRK 0 0 1 1
Finland FIN 0 0 1 1