Super-Heavyweight, Greco-Roman (>100 kilograms), Men

Bulgaria’s Aleksandar Tomov was a clear favorite, having won the 1971 and 1973-75 World Championships and the European title in 1972-73 and 1976. Tomov had also won the silver medal in this class at München in 1972. Thus it was a shock in the first round when Tomov was defeated by American Pete Lee, who threw Tomov in 1:14. Tomov went on to win all his remaining preliminary matches but it would not be enough to overcome Soviet Oleksandr Kolchynskiy, who won all his preliminary matches by falls and went to the final round with 0.0 bad points. There he met Tomov, who had defeated Kolchynskiy six consecutive times, including at the 1976 Europeans, but in Montréal Kolchynskiy prevailed by decision, 12-6, to win the gold medal, with Tomov settling for another silver. Lee would place fifth and was eliminated after a fourth-round loss to Romania’s Roman Codreanu, who went on to win bronze. In 1980 at Moskva, Kolchynskiy would repeat as gold medalist, again defeating Tomov, who would win his third consecutive silver in this class.