Wrestling at the 1960 Summer Olympics

The 1960 wrestling tournament was held at the Basilica of Maxentius, sometimes called the Basilica of Maxentius and Constantine or the Basilica Nova. It is an ancient site built in 312 ACE in the Roman Forum. The site was started in 308 under Emperor Maxentius and finished in 312 under Emperor Constantine. It is the third oldest venue ever used for a modern Olympic event, trailing only the Baths of Caracalla (Terme di Caracalla), built around 212 ACE, which hosted the 1960 gymnastics competition, and of course, the Ancient Olympia site, which held the men’s and women’s shot put events at the 2004 Olympics.

There was no change to the wrestling program in 1960 with the same eight classes and weight limits for both freestyle and Greco-Roman. The tournament was again conducted by a negative (bad) point system, with the system changed again. Scoring was as follows: win by fall – 0 points, win by decision – 1 point, draw – 2 points, loss by decision – 3 points, and loss by fall – 4 points. Wrestlers were eliminated when they accumulated 6 negative (bad) points, which was increased from 5 at the last few Olympics, but effectively the event was a double elimination tournament. When three wrestlers remained in any class, they entered a medal round-robin competition, with previous match results carried over.

Turkey won a remarkable 7 gold medals in Roma wrestling, although their 9 total medals trailed the Soviet Union’s 10. In freestyle, Turkey won 6 medals and 4 golds, leading both lists. The Soviets won the most medals in Greco-Roman, with 5, while both Turkey and the Soviet Union won 3 Greco-Roman events.