Lightweight, Freestyle (≤66 kg), Men

The two favorites were Hungarian Károly Kárpáti and Finland’s Hermanni Pihlajamäki. Kárpáti had won the 1935 European Championship, with Pihlajamäki second, but Pihlajamäki had been Olympic Champion in 1932 as a featherweight. In the fourth round, Kárpáti defeated Pihlajamäki by a fall at 9:20. They both advanced to round five, where Kárpáti won a close decision (2-1) over German Wolfgang Ehrl, which gave the Hungarian the gold medal. Ehrl then won the silver medal by defeating Pihlajamäki by fall in the final match.

David Wallechinsky in The Complete Book of the Olympics describes Kárpáti’s travails because of his Jewish faith. He was born Klein but changed his name to Kárpáti to hide his religious ethnicity. Captured by the Germans, his fame prevented him initially from being sent to a concentration camp until 1943. But once there he resisted the Germans, even throwing a German officer off a bridge at the camp in Poland. After further resistance he was badly beaten. After the war, Kárpáti changed his name back to Klein and became a well-known wrestling coach.