| | Event type

Bantamweight, Freestyle (≤57 kg), Men

Date	29 – 30 July 1996
Status	Olympic
Location	Georgia World Congress Center, Atlanta, Georgia (Hall G)
Participants	21 from 21 countries
Format	Single-elimination tournament with classification rounds for placements.

American Terry Brands had won the 1993 and 1995 World Championships and would have been the favorite, except that he did not make the US Team, as he was beaten at the US Trials by Kendall Cross, who had wrestled in this class at Barcelona. Cross was most concerned about Canadian Gia Sissaouri, who had been born in Georgia and had lost the 1995 World final to Brands, and focused much of his training on countering his moves. The two made it to the final, where Cross quickly went up 5-0 and then held on to win gold by 5-3. Brands would make the US team in 2000 and win a bronze medal. His brother, Tom Brands, won the gold medal in Atlanta as a featherweight. Sissaouri would go on to win the 2001 World title.

Pos	Number	Competitor	NOC	CP	TP
1	13	Kendall Cross	USA	–	–	Gold
2	8	Gia Sissaouri	CAN	–	–	Silver
3	15	Ri Yong-Sam	PRK	–	–	Bronze
4	16	Harun Doğan	TUR	–	–
5	20	Šaban Trstena	MKD	–	–
6	1	Mohammad Talaei	IRI	–	–
7	21	Aliaksandr Huzau	BLR	–	–
8	3	Damir Zakhartdinov	UZB	–	–
9	12	Sonny Abe	JPN	9	22
10	2	Arif Abdullayev	AZE	9	17
11	9	Bagautdin Umakhanov	RUS	7	10
12	18	Serafim Barzakov	BUL	6	14
13	6	Artur Fyodorov	KAZ	5	13
14	5	Nazim Alidjanov	MDA	5	18
15	19	Alejandro Puerto	CUB	4	12
16	10	Michele Liuzzi	ITA	3	5
17	7	Tserenbaataryn Tsogtbayar	MGL	2	9
18	4	Aslanbek Fidarov	UKR	1	3
=19	11	Bogdan Ciufulescu	ROU	1	1
=19	17	Cory O'Brien	AUS	1	1
21	14	Talata Embalo	GBS	0	0

Round One

Date	29 July 1996

Match	Date/Time	Location	Competitor	NOC	Result	Competitor	NOC
Match #1	29 Jul	Hall G	Mohammad Talaei	IRI	Decision (4-1) (6:19)	Arif Abdullayev	AZE
Match #2	29 Jul	Hall G	Damir Zakhartdinov	UZB	Decision (5-3) (5:00)	Aslanbek Fidarov	UKR
Match #3	29 Jul	Hall G	Artur Fyodorov	KAZ	Decision (10-8) (7:50)	Nazim Alidjanov	MDA
Match #4	29 Jul	Hall G	Gia Sissaouri	CAN	Decision (8-3) (5:00)	Tserenbaataryn Tsogtbayar	MGL
Match #5	29 Jul	Hall G	Bagautdin Umakhanov	RUS	Decision (4-0) (5:00)	Michele Liuzzi	ITA
Match #6	29 Jul	Hall G	Sonny Abe	JPN	Grand superiority (10-0) (3:34)	Bogdan Ciufulescu	ROU
Match #7	29 Jul	Hall G	Kendall Cross	USA	Grand superiority (10-0) (0:54)	Talata Embalo	GBS
Match #8	29 Jul	Hall G	Ri Yong-Sam	PRK	Decision (3-0) (5:00)	Harun Doğan	TUR
Match #9	29 Jul	Hall G	Serafim Barzakov	BUL	Grand superiority (10-0) (3:23)	Cory O'Brien	AUS
Match #10	29 Jul	Hall G	Šaban Trstena	MKD	Decision (4-3) (6:28)	Alejandro Puerto	CUB
Match #11	29 Jul	Hall G	Aliaksandr Huzau	BLR

Round Two

Date	29 July 1996

Match	Date/Time	Location	Competitor	NOC	Result	Competitor	NOC
Match #1	29 Jul	Hall G	Aliaksandr Huzau	BLR	Decision (5-3) (5:00)	Mohammad Talaei	IRI
Match #2	29 Jul	Hall G	Damir Zakhartdinov	UZB	Decision (3-1) (5:00)	Artur Fyodorov	KAZ
Match #3	29 Jul	Hall G	Gia Sissaouri	CAN	Decision (1-1) (8:00)	Bagautdin Umakhanov	RUS
Match #4	29 Jul	Hall G	Kendall Cross	USA	Decision (4-2) (5:00)	Sonny Abe	JPN
Match #5	29 Jul	Hall G	Šaban Trstena	MKD
Match #6	29 Jul	Hall G	Ri Yong-Sam	PRK	Decision (5-1) (6:00)	Serafim Barzakov	BUL

Quarter-Finals

Date	30 July 1996

Match	Date/Time	Location	Competitor	NOC	Result	Competitor	NOC
Match #1	30 Jul	Hall G	Šaban Trstena	MKD	Decision (7-3) (5:00)	Aliaksandr Huzau	BLR
Match #2	30 Jul	Hall G	Gia Sissaouri	CAN	Decision (8-0) (5:00)	Damir Zakhartdinov	UZB
Match #3	30 Jul	Hall G	Kendall Cross	USA
Match #4	30 Jul	Hall G	Ri Yong-Sam	PRK

Semi-Finals

Date	30 July 1996

Match	Date/Time	Location	Competitor	NOC	Result	Competitor	NOC
Match #1	30 Jul	Hall G	Gia Sissaouri	CAN	Decision (4-1) (6:43)	Šaban Trstena	MKD
Match #2	30 Jul	Hall G	Kendall Cross	USA	Grand superiority (12-2) (4:59)	Ri Yong-Sam	PRK

Final Round

Date	30 July 1996

Match	Date/Time	Location	Competitor	NOC	Result	Competitor	NOC
Match 1/2	30 Jul	Hall G	Kendall Cross	USA	Decision (5-3) (5:00)	Gia Sissaouri	CAN
Match 3/4	30 Jul	Hall G	Ri Yong-Sam	PRK	Decision (3-0) (5:00)	Harun Doğan	TUR
Match 5/6	30 Jul	Hall G	Šaban Trstena	MKD	Decision (4-3) (5:00)	Mohammad Talaei	IRI
Match 7/8	30 Jul	Hall G	Aliaksandr Huzau	BLR	Decision (3-2) (5:00)	Damir Zakhartdinov	UZB

Classification Round Two

Date	29 July 1996

Match	Date/Time	Location	Competitor	NOC	Result	Competitor	NOC
Match #1	29 Jul	Hall G	Arif Abdullayev	AZE	Grand superiority (11-0) (1:59)	Aslanbek Fidarov	UKR
Match #2	29 Jul	Hall G	Nazim Alidjanov	MDA	Decision (7-6) (5:00)	Tserenbaataryn Tsogtbayar	MGL
Match #3	29 Jul	Hall G	Michele Liuzzi	ITA	Decision (5-1) (5:00)	Bogdan Ciufulescu	ROU
Match #4	29 Jul	Hall G	Harun Doğan	TUR	Fall (3-0) (0:51)	Talata Embalo	GBS
Match #5	29 Jul	Hall G	Alejandro Puerto	CUB	Decision (9-1) (5:00)	Cory O'Brien	AUS

Classification Round Three

Date	29 July 1996

Match	Date/Time	Location	Competitor	NOC	Result	Competitor	NOC
Match #1	29 Jul	Hall G	Arif Abdullayev	AZE	Decision (4-3) (5:00)	Nazim Alidjanov	MDA
Match #2	29 Jul	Hall G	Harun Doğan	TUR	Decision (4-0) (5:00)	Michele Liuzzi	ITA
Match #3	29 Jul	Hall G	Mohammad Talaei	IRI	Decision (5-0) (5:00)	Alejandro Puerto	CUB
Match #4	29 Jul	Hall G	Bagautdin Umakhanov	RUS	Decision (5-2) (5:00)	Artur Fyodorov	KAZ
Match #5	29 Jul	Hall G	Sonny Abe	JPN	Decision (5-3) (5:00)	Serafim Barzakov	BUL

Classification Round Four

Date	30 July 1996

Match	Date/Time	Location	Competitor	NOC	Result	Competitor	NOC
Match #1	30 Jul	Hall G	Harun Doğan	TUR	Decision (3-1) (5:00)	Arif Abdullayev	AZE
Match #2	30 Jul	Hall G	Mohammad Talaei	IRI	Decision (1-0) (8:00)	Bagautdin Umakhanov	RUS
Match #3	30 Jul	Hall G	Aliaksandr Huzau	BLR	Decision (6-5) (5:00)	Sonny Abe	JPN
Match #4	30 Jul	Hall G	Damir Zakhartdinov	UZB

Classification Round Five

Date	30 July 1996

Match	Date/Time	Location	Competitor	NOC	Result	Competitor	NOC
Match #1	30 Jul	Hall G	Mohammad Talaei	IRI	Decision (4-2) (5:00)	Damir Zakhartdinov	UZB
Match #2	30 Jul	Hall G	Harun Doğan	TUR	Decision (3-0) (5:00)	Aliaksandr Huzau	BLR

Classification Round Six

Date	30 July 1996

Match	Date/Time	Location	Competitor	NOC	Result	Competitor	NOC
Match #1	30 Jul	Hall G	Harun Doğan	TUR	Decision (3-2) (5:00)	Šaban Trstena	MKD
Match #2	30 Jul	Hall G	Ri Yong-Sam	PRK	Fall (4-0) (3:28)	Mohammad Talaei	IRI