Light-Heavyweight, Freestyle (≤87 kg), Men

Sweden’s Carl Westergren competed in this class. He had won gold at Antwerp in Greco-Roman middleweight, had already won the light-heavyweight Greco title in Paris, and in 1932 would win the unlimited Greco-Roman class to become one of the few Olympic wrestlers with three gold medals. But this was a rare freestyle appearance for him, and he lost in the semi-finals to little-known American John Spellman. Spellman then defeated Sweden’s Rudolf Svensson for the gold medal. Spellman later became a professional wrestler and football player, playing in the NFL for eight seasons with the Providence Steamrollers and Boston Redskins.

Svensson also competed in Greco-Roman in Paris, losing the final in this weight class to Westergren. In the freestyle second-place Bergvall tournament, Svensson turned the tables on Westergren in the first round, and then defeated Britain’s William Wilson for the silver, giving him two wrestling silver medals in Paris. Switzerland’s Charles Courant, the silver medalist in this event in 1920, had lost to Svensson in the semi-finals of the main tournament, and had two walkovers in the third-place tournament to win bronze.