Wrestling at the 1952 Summer Olympics – Men's freestyle heavyweight

Men's freestyle heavyweight
at the Games of the XV Olympiad
Men's freestyle heavyweight; at the Games of the XV Olympiad
Venue	Messuhalli
Dates	20–23 July
Competitors	13 from 13 nations
Medalists
	← 1948 1956 →

The men's freestyle heavyweight competition at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki took place from 20 July to 23 July at Messuhalli. Nations were limited to one competitor.^[1]

Competition format

This freestyle wrestling competition continued to use the "bad points" elimination system introduced at the 1928 Summer Olympics for Greco-Roman and at the 1932 Summer Olympics for freestyle wrestling, removing the slight modification introduced in 1936 and used until 1948 (which had a reduced penalty for a loss by 2–1 decision). Each round featured all wrestlers pairing off and wrestling one bout (with one wrestler having a bye if there were an odd number). The loser received 3 points. The winner received 1 point if the win was by decision and 0 points if the win was by fall. At the end of each round, any wrestler with at least 5 points was eliminated. This elimination continued until the medal rounds, which began when 3 wrestlers remained. These 3 wrestlers each faced each other in a round-robin medal round (with earlier results counting, if any had wrestled another before); record within the medal round determined medals, with bad points breaking ties.^[2]^[1]

Results

Round 1

Bouts

Winner	Nation	Victory Type	Loser	Nation
Arsen Mekokishvili	Soviet Union	Fall	József Kovács	Hungary
Ken Richmond	Great Britain	Fall	Adolfo Ramírez	Argentina
Bertil Antonsson	Sweden	Fall	Josef Růžička	Czechoslovakia
Taisto Kangasniemi	Finland	Fall	Ahad Vafadar	Iran
İrfan Atan	Turkey	Fall	William Kerslake	United States
Natale Vecchi	Italy	Decision, 3–0	Auguste Baarendse	Belgium
Willi Waltner	Germany	Bye	N/A	N/A

Points

Rank	Wrestler	Nation	Earned	Total
1	Bertil Antonsson	Sweden	0	0
1	İrfan Atan	Turkey	0	0
1	Taisto Kangasniemi	Finland	0	0
1	Arsen Mekokishvili	Soviet Union	0	0
1	Ken Richmond	Great Britain	0	0
1	Willi Waltner	Germany	0	0
7	Natale Vecchi	Italy	1	1
8	Auguste Baarendse	Belgium	3	3
8	William Kerslake	United States	3	3
8	József Kovács	Hungary	3	3
8	Adolfo Ramírez	Argentina	3	3
8	Josef Růžička	Czechoslovakia	3	3
8	Ahad Vafadar	Iran	3	3

Round 2

Bouts

Winner	Nation	Victory Type	Loser	Nation
Arsen Mekokishvili	Soviet Union	Decision, 3–0	Willi Waltner	Germany
Ken Richmond	Great Britain	Decision, 3–0	József Kovács	Hungary
Bertil Antonsson	Sweden	Fall	Adolfo Ramírez	Argentina
Taisto Kangasniemi	Finland	Fall	Josef Růžička	Czechoslovakia
İrfan Atan	Turkey	Decision, 2–1	Ahad Vafadar	Iran
William Kerslake	United States	Fall	Auguste Baarendse	Belgium
Natale Vecchi	Italy	Bye	N/A	N/A

Points

Rank	Wrestler	Nation	Start	Earned	Total
1	Bertil Antonsson	Sweden	0	0	0
1	Taisto Kangasniemi	Finland	0	0	0
3	İrfan Atan	Turkey	0	1	1
3	Arsen Mekokishvili	Soviet Union	0	1	1
3	Ken Richmond	Great Britain	0	1	1
3	Natale Vecchi	Italy	1	0	1
7	William Kerslake	United States	3	0	3
7	Willi Waltner	Germany	0	3	3
9	Auguste Baarendse	Belgium	3	3	6
9	József Kovács	Hungary	3	3	6
9	Adolfo Ramírez	Argentina	3	3	6
9	Josef Růžička	Czechoslovakia	3	3	6
9	Ahad Vafadar	Iran	3	3	6

Round 3

Bouts

Winner	Nation	Victory Type	Loser	Nation
Willi Waltner	Germany	Decision, 2–1	Natale Vecchi	Italy
Arsen Mekokishvili	Soviet Union	Decision, 2–1	Ken Richmond	Great Britain
Bertil Antonsson	Sweden	Decision, 2–1	İrfan Atan	Turkey
William Kerslake	United States	Fall	Taisto Kangasniemi	Finland

Points

Rank	Wrestler	Nation	Start	Earned	Total
1	Bertil Antonsson	Sweden	0	1	1
2	Arsen Mekokishvili	Soviet Union	1	1	2
3	Taisto Kangasniemi	Finland	0	3	3
3	William Kerslake	United States	3	0	3
5	İrfan Atan	Turkey	1	3	4
5	Ken Richmond	Great Britain	1	3	4
5	Natale Vecchi	Italy	1	3	4
5	Willi Waltner	Germany	3	1	4

Round 4

Kerslake took 5th place over Kangasniemi due to head-to-head results from round 3.

Bouts

Winner	Nation	Victory Type	Loser	Nation
Arsen Mekokishvili	Soviet Union	Fall	Natale Vecchi	Italy
Ken Richmond	Great Britain	Fall	Willi Waltner	Germany
Bertil Antonsson	Sweden	Decision, 2–1	William Kerslake	United States
İrfan Atan	Turkey	Decision, 3–0	Taisto Kangasniemi	Finland

Points

Rank	Wrestler	Nation	Start	Earned	Total
1	Bertil Antonsson	Sweden	1	1	2
1	Arsen Mekokishvili	Soviet Union	2	0	2
3	Ken Richmond	Great Britain	4	0	4
4	İrfan Atan	Turkey	4	1	5
5	William Kerslake	United States	3	3	6
6	Taisto Kangasniemi	Finland	3	3	6
7	Natale Vecchi	Italy	4	3	7
7	Willi Waltner	Germany	4	3	7

Medal rounds

Mekokishvili's victory over Richmond counted for the medal rounds. Mekokishvili then defeated Antonsson to win the gold medal at 2–0 against the other medalists. Antonsson then faced Richmond for the silver medal, with the Swede winning.