Heavyweight, Freestyle (>87 kg), Men

Turkey’s Hamit Kaplan was the defending champion, had won silver at the 1957 Worlds, and won the World title in 1959. He was favored in Roma, but was expected to be challenged by Germany’s Wilfried Dietrich, who won a silver medal at Melbourne in 1956 in Greco-Roman. They both made it to the final round, where they were joined by Soviet Savkuz Dzarasov. Dietrich led with only 1 bad point, but Kaplan had barely survived, with 5 bad points. Dietrich threw Dzarasov in 7:08 and when he and Kaplan drew in the final round, the gold medal went to Dietrich with Kaplan taking silver, after drawing with Dzarasov in round five.

Dietrich would compete in five Olympics (1956-72), and in eight Olympic wrestling tournaments, an Olympic record, competing in both styles in 1960, 1964, and 1972. He would eventually win five Olympic medals, an all-time best in Olympic wrestling through 2012. In 1960 he had already repeated as the silver medalist in Greco-Roman heavyweight. Kaplan would return in 1964 and win a bronze medal to complete his set of Olympic medals.