| | Event type

Super-Heavyweight, Greco-Roman (≤130 kg), Men

Date	21 – 22 July 1996
Status	Olympic
Location	Georgia World Congress Center, Atlanta, Georgia (Hall G)
Participants	19 from 19 countries
Format	Single-elimination tournament with classification rounds for placements.

The Russian bear, Aleksandr Karelin, had not lost a match in nine years and had won the World Championships in 1989-91 and 1993-95, the European Championships from 1988-96, and was a two-time defending gold medalist. The only chink in his armor was that he had undergone shoulder surgery only a few months before the Atlanta Olympics. In the second round he was actually pushed to overtime by Moldovan Sergei Mureico, but Karelin won 2-0. Karelin had only once before needed to go to overtime in an international and that had been against American Matt Ghaffari at the 1993 Worlds. Ghaffari met Karelin in the Atlanta final, with Karelin scoring one point at 1:51, and that was all there was, as neither could score again, Karelin winning his third consecutive gold, 1-0. Karelin would continue to dominate the class, but at Sydney in 2000 he lost in the final to American Rulon Gardner, in what is considered one of the biggest upsets in Olympic history in any sport.

Pos	Number	Competitor	NOC	CP	TP
1	3	Aleksandr Karelin	RUS	–	–	Gold
2	13	Matt Ghaffari	USA	–	–	Silver
3	5	Sergei Mureico	MDA	–	–	Bronze
4	11	Petro Kotok	UKR	–	–
5	10	Panagiotis Poikilidis	GRE	–	–
6	16	René Schiekel	GER	–	–
7	2	Tomas Johansson	SWE	–	–
8	17	Kenichi Suzuki	JPN	–	–
9	12	Raul Dgvareli	TJK	6	6
10	14	Shermukhammad Kuziyev	UZB	5	8
11	4	Omrane Ayari	TUN	4	7
12	18	György Kékes	HUN	3	3
13	7	Yogi Johl	CAN	3	3
14	19	Juha Ahokas	FIN	3	2
15	8	Helger Hallik	EST	3	0
16	6	Gheorghe Amariei	ROU	2	2
17	1	Rashid Bel Aziz	MAR	1	2
18	9	Guillermo Díaz	MEX	1	2
19	15	Liu Guoke	CHN	1	1

Round One

Date	21 July 1996

Match	Date/Time	Location	Competitor	NOC	Result	Competitor	NOC
Match #1	21 Jul	Hall G	Tomas Johansson	SWE	Decision (8-0) (5:00)	Rashid Bel Aziz	MAR
Match #2	21 Jul	Hall G	Aleksandr Karelin	RUS	Grand superiority (10-0) (1:49)	Omrane Ayari	TUN
Match #3	21 Jul	Hall G	Sergei Mureico	MDA	Grand superiority (12-1) (2:56)	Gheorghe Amariei	ROU
Match #4	21 Jul	Hall G	Helger Hallik	EST	Decision (0-0) (8:00)	Yogi Johl	CAN
Match #5	21 Jul	Hall G	Panagiotis Poikilidis	GRE	Grand superiority (10-0) (2:40)	Guillermo Díaz	MEX
Match #6	21 Jul	Hall G	Petro Kotok	UKR	Decision (5-0) (5:00)	Raul Dgvareli	TJK
Match #7	21 Jul	Hall G	Matt Ghaffari	USA	Decision (7-1) (5:00)	Shermukhammad Kuziyev	UZB
Match #8	21 Jul	Hall G	René Schiekel	GER	Decision (3-0) (5:32)	Liu Guoke	CHN
Match #9	21 Jul	Hall G	György Kékes	HUN	Decision (3-0) (5:00)	Kenichi Suzuki	JPN
Match #10	21 Jul	Hall G	Juha Ahokas	FIN

Round Two

Date	21 July 1996

Match	Date/Time	Location	Competitor	NOC	Result	Competitor	NOC
Match #1	21 Jul	Hall G	Juha Ahokas	FIN	Decision (2-0) (8:00)	Tomas Johansson	SWE
Match #2	21 Jul	Hall G	Aleksandr Karelin	RUS	Decision (2-0) (8:00)	Sergei Mureico	MDA
Match #3	21 Jul	Hall G	Panagiotis Poikilidis	GRE	Decision (3-0) (5:00)	Helger Hallik	EST
Match #4	21 Jul	Hall G	Matt Ghaffari	USA	Decision (3-0) (5:00)	Petro Kotok	UKR
Match #5	21 Jul	Hall G	René Schiekel	GER	Decision (2-0) (8:00)	György Kékes	HUN

Quarter-Finals

Date	22 July 1996

Match	Date/Time	Location	Competitor	NOC	Result	Competitor	NOC
Match #1	22 Jul	Hall G	Aleksandr Karelin	RUS	Fall (4-0) (3:28)	Juha Ahokas	FIN
Match #2	22 Jul	Hall G	Panagiotis Poikilidis	GRE
Match #3	22 Jul	Hall G	Matt Ghaffari	USA
Match #4	22 Jul	Hall G	René Schiekel	GER

Semi-Finals

Date	22 July 1996

Match	Date/Time	Location	Competitor	NOC	Result	Competitor	NOC
Match #1	22 Jul	Hall G	Aleksandr Karelin	RUS	Fall (8-0) (2:59)	Panagiotis Poikilidis	GRE
Match #2	22 Jul	Hall G	Matt Ghaffari	USA	Decision (4-0) (5:00)	René Schiekel	GER

Final Round

Date	22 July 1996

Match	Date/Time	Location	Competitor	NOC	Result	Competitor	NOC
Match 1/2	22 Jul	Hall G	Aleksandr Karelin	RUS	Decision (1-0) (8:00)	Matt Ghaffari	USA
Match 3/4	22 Jul	Hall G	Sergei Mureico	MDA	Decision (1-0) (8:00)	Petro Kotok	UKR
Match 5/6	22 Jul	Hall G	Panagiotis Poikilidis	GRE	Decision (3-0) (5:00)	René Schiekel	GER
Match 7/8	22 Jul	Hall G	Tomas Johansson	SWE	Decision (8-0) (5:00)	Kenichi Suzuki	JPN

Classification Round Two

Date	21 July 1996

Match	Date/Time	Location	Competitor	NOC	Result	Competitor	NOC
Match #1	21 Jul	Hall G	Omrane Ayari	TUN	Decision (4-2) (5:00)	Rashid Bel Aziz	MAR
Match #2	21 Jul	Hall G	Yogi Johl	CAN	Decision (3-1) (5:00)	Gheorghe Amariei	ROU
Match #3	21 Jul	Hall G	Raul Dgvareli	TJK	Decision (4-2) (5:53)	Guillermo Díaz	MEX
Match #4	21 Jul	Hall G	Shermukhammad Kuziyev	UZB	Decision (6-1) (5:00)	Liu Guoke	CHN
Match #5	21 Jul	Hall G	Kenichi Suzuki	JPN

Classification Round Three

Date	21 July 1996

Match	Date/Time	Location	Competitor	NOC	Result	Competitor	NOC
Match #1	21 Jul	Hall G	Kenichi Suzuki	JPN	Decision (4-3) (5:00)	Omrane Ayari	TUN
Match #2	21 Jul	Hall G	Raul Dgvareli	TJK	Decision (2-0) (8:00)	Yogi Johl	CAN
Match #3	21 Jul	Hall G	Tomas Johansson	SWE	Decision (1-1) (8:00)	Shermukhammad Kuziyev	UZB
Match #4	21 Jul	Hall G	Sergei Mureico	MDA	Decision (4-0) (5:00)	Helger Hallik	EST
Match #5	21 Jul	Hall G	Petro Kotok	UKR	Decision (4-0) (5:00)	György Kékes	HUN

Classification Round Four

Date	22 July 1996

Match	Date/Time	Location	Competitor	NOC	Result	Competitor	NOC
Match #1	22 Jul	Hall G	Kenichi Suzuki	JPN	Decision (8-0) (5:00)	Raul Dgvareli	TJK
Match #2	22 Jul	Hall G	Sergei Mureico	MDA	Decision (3-0) (5:00)	Tomas Johansson	SWE
Match #3	22 Jul	Hall G	Petro Kotok	UKR	Decision (2-0) (8:00)	Juha Ahokas	FIN

Classification Round Five

Date	22 July 1996

Match	Date/Time	Location	Competitor	NOC	Result	Competitor	NOC
Match #1	22 Jul	Hall G	Sergei Mureico	MDA	Grand superiority (11-0) (2:31)	Kenichi Suzuki	JPN
Match #2	22 Jul	Hall G	Petro Kotok	UKR

Classification Round Six

Date	22 July 1996

Match	Date/Time	Location	Competitor	NOC	Result	Competitor	NOC
Match #1	22 Jul	Hall G	Petro Kotok	UKR	Decision (3-1) (5:00)	Panagiotis Poikilidis	GRE
Match #2	22 Jul	Hall G	Sergei Mureico	MDA	Decision (5-0) (5:00)	René Schiekel	GER