Featherweight, Freestyle (≤61 kg), Men

Ten wrestlers came to the mat in this event, the most of any wrestling event in Los Angeles. The favorite was Finland’s Hermanni Pihlajamäki, who was the 1931 European Champion and whose cousin, Kustaa, was the silver medalist in this class in 1928 and was considered one of the greatest wrestlers of the 1930s. Hermanni was nowhere near his level but was still expected to win and he did not disappoint, winning his first three matches by falls, and decisioning Greece’s Ioannis Farmakidis in the medal round to secure the gold medal. He would win a bronze medal in freestyle lightweight in 1936. The bronze medal in Los Angeles went to Sweden’s Einar Karlsson, who came back in Berlin and won another silver medal, that time in Greco-Roman featherweight. The silver medal went to unheralded American Ed Nemir, who had never won anything more in the US than the Pacific Coast South titles in 1929 and 1930.