| | Event type

Flyweight, Freestyle (≤52 kg), Men

Date	31 July – 1 August 1996
Status	Olympic
Location	Georgia World Congress Center, Atlanta, Georgia (Hall G)
Participants	19 from 19 countries
Format	Single-elimination tournament with classification rounds for placements.

Bulgaria’s Valentin Yordanov had won the World Championships in 1993-95 and came to Atlanta as a heavy favorite. Since 1982 he had won seven World Championships and seven European Championships. It was hard to know what to think of his favorite status, however, as he had also been an overwhelming favorite in both Seoul (1988) and Barcelona (1992), but had finished only eighth and third, respectively. In Atlanta Yordanov won all his preliminary round matches and met Azerbaijani Namiq Abdullayev, the 1994-95 European Champion, in the final, which was desparately close. The match went into overtime but Yordanov finally got his gold medal, winning with a 1-point takedown at 6:29. Abdullayev would return and win the gold medal at Sydney in 2000.

When the IOC initially voted to eliminate wrestling from the Olympic Program in 2013, Yordanov returned his gold medal to the IOC in protest of the decision, which was later reversed. Yordanov took back his gold medal.

Pos	Number	Competitor	NOC	CP	TP
1	16	Valentin Yordanov	BUL	–	–	Gold
2	3	Namiq Abdullayev	AZE	–	–	Silver
3	11	Maulen Mamyrov	KAZ	–	–	Bronze
4	17	Chechen-Ool Mongush	RUS	–	–
5	8	Gholam Reza Mohammadi	IRI	–	–
6	19	Metin Topaktaş	TUR	–	–
7	2	Adkhamdzhon Akhilov	UZB	–	–
8	12	Greg Woodcroft	CAN	–	–
9	5	Hideo Sasayama	JPN	6	19
10	14	Volodymyr Tohuzov	UKR	6	12
11	4	Lou Rosselli	USA	6	7
12	10	David Legrand	FRA	5	15
13	6	Roman Kollar	SVK	4	6
14	13	Omar Kedjaouer	ALG	3	2
15	18	Constantin Corduneanu	ROU	2	6
16	1	Amiran Kardanov	GRE	2	2
17	7	Carlos Varela	CUB	1	2
=18	9	Greg Fitzgerald	AUS	0	0
=18	15	Víctor Rodríguez	MEX	0	0

Round One

Date	31 July 1996

Match	Date/Time	Location	Competitor	NOC	Result	Competitor	NOC
Match #1	31 Jul	Hall G	Adkhamdzhon Akhilov	UZB	Grand superiority (11-1) (4:40)	Amiran Kardanov	GRE
Match #2	31 Jul	Hall G	Namiq Abdullayev	AZE	Decision (7-0) (5:00)	Lou Rosselli	USA
Match #3	31 Jul	Hall G	Hideo Sasayama	JPN	Decision (6-0) (5:00)	Roman Kollar	SVK
Match #4	31 Jul	Hall G	Gholam Reza Mohammadi	IRI	Decision (4-0) (6:47)	Carlos Varela	CUB
Match #5	31 Jul	Hall G	David Legrand	FRA	Grand superiority (10-0) (1:19)	Greg Fitzgerald	AUS
Match #6	31 Jul	Hall G	Maulen Mamyrov	KAZ	Grand superiority (10-0) (2:07)	Greg Woodcroft	CAN
Match #7	31 Jul	Hall G	Volodymyr Tohuzov	UKR	Grand superiority (10-0) (1:07)	Omar Kedjaouer	ALG
Match #8	31 Jul	Hall G	Valentin Yordanov	BUL	Fall (10-0) (1:59)	Víctor Rodríguez	MEX
Match #9	31 Jul	Hall G	Chechen-Ool Mongush	RUS	Decision (11-4) (5:00)	Constantin Corduneanu	ROU
Match #10	31 Jul	Hall G	Metin Topaktaş	TUR

Round Two

Date	31 July 1996

Match	Date/Time	Location	Competitor	NOC	Result	Competitor	NOC
Match #1	31 Jul	Hall G	Adkhamdzhon Akhilov	UZB	Decision (7-5) (5:00)	Metin Topaktaş	TUR
Match #2	31 Jul	Hall G	Namiq Abdullayev	AZE	Grand superiority (11-0) (5:00)	Hideo Sasayama	JPN
Match #3	31 Jul	Hall G	Gholam Reza Mohammadi	IRI	Decision (5-0) (5:00)	David Legrand	FRA
Match #4	31 Jul	Hall G	Maulen Mamyrov	KAZ	Decision (3-1) (7:55)	Volodymyr Tohuzov	UKR
Match #5	31 Jul	Hall G	Valentin Yordanov	BUL	Decision (4-2) (5:00)	Chechen-Ool Mongush	RUS

Quarter-Finals

Date	1 August 1996

Match	Date/Time	Location	Competitor	NOC	Result	Competitor	NOC
Match #1	01 Aug	Hall G	Namiq Abdullayev	AZE	Grand superiority (11-0) (2:58)	Adkhamdzhon Akhilov	UZB
Match #2	01 Aug	Hall G	Gholam Reza Mohammadi	IRI
Match #3	01 Aug	Hall G	Maulen Mamyrov	KAZ
Match #4	01 Aug	Hall G	Valentin Yordanov	BUL

Semi-Finals

Date	1 August 1996

Match	Date/Time	Location	Competitor	NOC	Result	Competitor	NOC
Match #1	01 Aug	Hall G	Namiq Abdullayev	AZE	Grand superiority (10-0) (2:16)	Gholam Reza Mohammadi	IRI
Match #2	01 Aug	Hall G	Valentin Yordanov	BUL	Decision (7-3) (5:00)	Maulen Mamyrov	KAZ

Final Round

Date	1 August 1996

Match	Date/Time	Location	Competitor	NOC	Result	Competitor	NOC
Match 1/2	01 Aug	Hall G	Valentin Yordanov	BUL	Decision (4-3) (6:29)	Namiq Abdullayev	AZE
Match 3/4	01 Aug	Hall G	Maulen Mamyrov	KAZ	Decision (3-2) (5:00)	Chechen-Ool Mongush	RUS
Match 5/6	01 Aug	Hall G	Gholam Reza Mohammadi	IRI	Decision (4-2) (5:00)	Metin Topaktaş	TUR
Match 7/8	01 Aug	Hall G	Adkhamdzhon Akhilov	UZB	Grand superiority (11-0) (1:41)	Greg Woodcroft	CAN

Classification Round Two

Date	31 July 1996

Match	Date/Time	Location	Competitor	NOC	Result	Competitor	NOC
Match #1	31 Jul	Hall G	Lou Rosselli	USA	Decision (3-1) (5:00)	Amiran Kardanov	GRE
Match #2	31 Jul	Hall G	Roman Kollar	SVK	Decision (3-2) (7:28)	Carlos Varela	CUB
Match #3	31 Jul	Hall G	Greg Woodcroft	CAN	Fall (6-0) (3:34)	Greg Fitzgerald	AUS
Match #4	31 Jul	Hall G	Omar Kedjaouer	ALG	Decision (2-0) (5:00)	Víctor Rodríguez	MEX
Match #5	31 Jul	Hall G	Constantin Corduneanu	ROU

Classification Round Three

Date	31 July 1996

Match	Date/Time	Location	Competitor	NOC	Result	Competitor	NOC
Match #1	31 Jul	Hall G	Lou Rosselli	USA	Decision (4-2) (5:00)	Constantin Corduneanu	ROU
Match #2	31 Jul	Hall G	Greg Woodcroft	CAN	Decision (6-3) (5:00)	Roman Kollar	SVK
Match #3	31 Jul	Hall G	Metin Topaktaş	TUR	Fall (3-0) (0:27)	Omar Kedjaouer	ALG
Match #4	31 Jul	Hall G	Hideo Sasayama	JPN	Decision (12-5) (5:00)	David Legrand	FRA
Match #5	31 Jul	Hall G	Chechen-Ool Mongush	RUS	Decision (2-1) (8:00)	Volodymyr Tohuzov	UKR

Classification Round Four

Date	1 August 1996

Match	Date/Time	Location	Competitor	NOC	Result	Competitor	NOC
Match #1	01 Aug	Hall G	Greg Woodcroft	CAN	Default (0-0) (0:00)	Lou Rosselli	USA
Match #2	01 Aug	Hall G	Metin Topaktaş	TUR	Fall (5-1) (4:29)	Hideo Sasayama	JPN
Match #3	01 Aug	Hall G	Chechen-Ool Mongush	RUS	Fall (4-0) (0:46)	Adkhamdzhon Akhilov	UZB

Classification Round Five

Date	1 August 1996

Match	Date/Time	Location	Competitor	NOC	Result	Competitor	NOC
Match #1	01 Aug	Hall G	Metin Topaktaş	TUR	Grand superiority (13-1) (1:26)	Greg Woodcroft	CAN
Match #2	01 Aug	Hall G	Chechen-Ool Mongush	RUS

Classification Round Six

Date	1 August 1996

Match	Date/Time	Location	Competitor	NOC	Result	Competitor	NOC
Match #1	01 Aug	Hall G	Chechen-Ool Mongush	RUS	Decision (3-1) (5:00)	Gholam Reza Mohammadi	IRI
Match #2	01 Aug	Hall G	Maulen Mamyrov	KAZ	Decision (11-5) (5:00)	Metin Topaktaş	TUR