Wrestling at the 1924 Summer Olympics

Dates 6 – 14 July 1924
Medal Events 13

The Paris Olympics added three new events to the wrestling tournament. In the Greco-Roman style, a bantamweight division was added, and some of the other weight limits were shuffled. Two new events were added to the freestyle competition, bantamweight and welterweight. This moved the heavyweight class limit up to 87 kilogrammes. For the Greco-Roman events, the tournament format was also changed\: each wrestler remained in competition until he had lost two matches. Final order was decided based on the number of matches won. The freestyle events were conducted as single-elimination competition, with the Bergvall system used to determine the secondary medals. All those losing to the champion competed in the second-place tournament, and all those losing to the gold or silver medalist competed in a single-elimination third-place tournament. The match length was also slightly changed from 1920: the fights were limited to 20 minutes, with ties going into overtime, a 6-minute ground wrestling decider.

The competitions saw a continued dominance of the Nordic nations in Greco-Roman wrestling, while the freestyle events were dominated by Switzerland and the United States. New in the Olympic wrestling arena was Japan, which was to become a dominant power in the sport several decades later. Through Katsutoshi Naito, the Asian nation won its first wrestling medal. Wrestling was one of the sports conducted at the Vélodrome d’Hiver, a single mat being located in the centre field of the cycling track. The crowds were never big, with only a few hundred paying spectators attending each day.

Events

Event Status Date Participants NOCs
Bantamweight, Greco-Roman (≤58 kilograms), Men Olympic 6 – 10 July 1924 25 15
Featherweight, Greco-Roman (≤62 kilograms), Men Olympic 6 – 10 July 1924 27 15
Lightweight, Greco-Roman (≤67.5 kilograms), Men Olympic 6 – 10 July 1924 28 18
Middleweight, Greco-Roman (≤75 kilograms), Men Olympic 6 – 10 July 1924 27 19
Light-Heavyweight, Greco-Roman (≤82.5 kilograms), Men Olympic 6 – 10 July 1924 22 15
Heavyweight, Greco-Roman (>82.5 kilograms), Men Olympic 6 – 10 July 1924 17 10
Bantamweight, Freestyle (≤56 kilograms), Men Olympic 11 – 14 July 1924 12 8
Featherweight, Freestyle (≤61 kilograms), Men Olympic 11 – 14 July 1924 17 12
Lightweight, Freestyle (≤66 kilograms), Men Olympic 11 – 14 July 1924 16 10
Welterweight, Freestyle (≤72 kilograms), Men Olympic 11 – 14 July 1924 13 7
Middleweight, Freestyle (≤79 kilograms), Men Olympic 11 – 14 July 1924 14 9
Light-Heavyweight, Freestyle (≤87 kilograms), Men Olympic 11 – 14 July 1924 15 10
Heavyweight, Freestyle (>87 kilograms), Men Olympic 11 – 14 July 1924 11 6
229 (229/0) 26 (26/0)

Medals

Event Gold Silver Bronze
Bantamweight, Greco-Roman, Men Eduard PütsepEST Anselm AhlforsFIN Väinö IkonenFIN
Featherweight, Greco-Roman, Men Kalle AnttilaFIN Aleksanteri ToivolaFIN Erik MalmbergSWE
Lightweight, Greco-Roman, Men Oskari FrimanFIN Lajos KeresztesHUN Kalle WesterlundFIN
Middleweight, Greco-Roman, Men Edvard WesterlundFIN Arthur LindforsFIN Roman SteinbergEST
Light-Heavyweight, Greco-Roman, Men Carl WestergrenSWE Rudolf SvenssonSWE Onni PellinenFIN
Heavyweight, Greco-Roman, Men Henri DeglaneFRA Edil RosenqvistFIN Rajmund BadóHUN
Bantamweight, Freestyle, Men Kustaa PihlajamäkiFIN Kaarlo MäkinenFIN Bryan HinesUSA
Featherweight, Freestyle, Men Robin ReedUSA Chet NewtonUSA Katsutoshi NaitoJPN
Lightweight, Freestyle, Men Russ VisUSA Volmar WikströmFIN Arvo HaavistoFIN
Welterweight, Freestyle, Men Hermann GehriSUI Eino LeinoFIN Otto MüllerSUI
Middleweight, Freestyle, Men Fritz HagmannSUI Pierre OllivierBEL Vilho PekkalaFIN
Light-Heavyweight, Freestyle, Men John SpellmanUSA Rudolf SvenssonSWE Charles CourantSUI
Heavyweight, Freestyle, Men Harry SteelUSA Henri WernliSUI Archie MacDonaldGBR

Medal table

NOC Gold Silver Bronze Total
Finland FIN 4 7 5 16
United States USA 4 1 1 6
Switzerland SUI 2 1 2 5
Sweden SWE 1 2 1 4
Estonia EST 1 0 1 2
France FRA 1 0 0 1
Hungary HUN 0 1 1 2
Belgium BEL 0 1 0 1
Great Britain GBR 0 0 1 1
Japan JPN 0 0 1 1