| | Event type
Heavyweight, Freestyle (>87 kilograms), Men
| Date | 1 – 3 August 1932 | |
|---|---|---|
| Status | Olympic | |
| Location | Grand Olympic Auditorium, Los Angeles, California | |
| Participants | 3 from 3 countries | |
| Format | Scoring by negative points, with negative points given for any result short of a fall. Accumulation of 5 negative points eliminated the wrestler. | |
There were only three competitors so everybody won a medal. They were led by the defending champion, Swede Johan Richthoff , who had won three European titles since the Amsterdam Olympics, and was an overwhelming favorite. In the first two rounds he defeated American Jack Riley and Austria’s Nikolaus Hirschl to defend his gold medal. Riley pinned Hirschl in the final round for the silver medal. Riley had been a two-time NCAA champion and later played briefly in the NFL with the Boston Redskins. A few days after this event ended, Hirschl would add another bronze medal in Greco-Roman heavyweight.
| Pos | Competitor(s) | NOC | RE | Bad Points | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Johan Richthoff |  SWE | – | – | Gold | ||
| 2 | Jack Riley |  USA | – | – | Silver | ||
| 3 | Nikolaus Hirschl |  AUT | – | – | Bronze |
Round One (1 August 1932)
| Pos | Competitor(s) | NOC | Bad Points | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nikolaus Hirschl | AUT | 0 | |||
| 2 | Johan Richthoff | SWE | 1 | |||
| 3 | Jack Riley | USA | 3 |
| Match #1 | Johan Richthoff | SWE | decision | Jack Riley | USA |
| Match #2 | Nikolaus Hirschl | AUT | bye |
Round Two (2 August 1932)
| Pos | Competitor(s) | NOC | Bad Points | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Johan Richthoff | SWE | 2 | |||
| =2 | Nikolaus Hirschl | AUT | 3 | |||
| =2 | Jack Riley | USA | 3 |
| Match #1 | Johan Richthoff | SWE | decision | Nikolaus Hirschl | AUT |
| Match #2 | Jack Riley | USA | bye |
Final Round (3 August 1932)
| Match 2/3 | Jack Riley | USA | fall (8:32) | Nikolaus Hirschl | AUT |