Wrestling at the 1932 Summer Olympics

In 1932 wrestling each nation could enter one athlete in each event. The events were decided by the “bad point” system for the second time (after 1928) at the Olympics. Wrestlers who lost either by fall or decision were given 3 bad points, while winning by decision gave a wrestler 1 bad point. A win by fall had no deductions. The bad points were totaled after every match, and a total of 5 bad points eliminated a wrestler, so the competition effectively was a double-elimination tournament.

The Olympic wrestling tournament was held in the 15,300-seat Olympic Auditorium, where the competitions in weightlifting and boxing also took place. Match lengths were 20 minutes in Greco -Roman wrestling, and 15 minutes in freestyle. The audience had major problems following the competitions, as the state of the fights and their results were not clearly published. The strongest wrestling nations in Los Angeles were Sweden with six titles, with the Americans winning three (all in freestyle) and the Finns two.