| | Event type

Welterweight, Freestyle (≤74 kg), Men

Date	31 July – 1 August 1996
Status	Olympic
Location	Georgia World Congress Center, Atlanta, Georgia (Hall G)
Participants	22 from 22 countries
Format	Single-elimination tournament with classification rounds for placements.

Russian Buvaysar Saytiyev had won the 1995 Worlds and the 1996 European Championships and came to Atlanta as the clear favorite. He would soon become one of the most dominant wrestlers of the next decade, winning the gold medal in 1996 without being pressured. In the final he met defending gold medalist Park Jang-Sun of Korea, defeating him easily, 5-0. Saytiyev had already defeated the 1995 World Champion, German Alexander Leipold, and the 1988 Olympic silver medalist, American Kenny Monday. Saytiyev was expected to defend his gold medal in Sydney, but was upset early in the tournament. He returned to win the gold medal in this class again in 2004 and 2008, however, making him the only Olympic wrestler to win three gold medals in the same class, but not consecutively. He would also finish his career, after 2008, with six World and six European titles.

Pos	Number	Competitor	NOC	CP	TP
1	17	Buvaysar Saytiyev	RUS	–	–	Gold
2	9	Park Jang-Sun	KOR	–	–	Silver
3	5	Takuya Ota	JPN	–	–	Bronze
4	22	Plamen Paskalev	BUL	–	–
5	19	Alexander Leipold	GER	–	–
6	16	Kenny Monday	USA	–	–
7	12	Victor Peicov	MDA	–	–
8	10	Məmmədsalam Haciyev	AZE	–	–
9	1	David Hohl	CAN	9	26
10	4	Valerij Verhušin	MKD	8	23
11	15	Alberto Rodríguez	CUB	8	14
12	2	Boris Budayev	UZB	7	11
13	7	Árpád Ritter	HUN	6	17
14	8	Ihar Kozyr	BLR	5	8
15	13	Radion Kertanti	SVK	4	5
16	18	Eisa Momeni	IRI	4	4
17	3	Rein Ozoline	AUS	1	12
18	14	Turan Ceylan	TUR	1	3
19	11	Magomed Kurugliyev	KAZ	1	1
=20	21	Anthony Avom	CMR	0	0
=20	6	Felipe Guzmán	MEX	0	0
=20	20	Lazaros Loizidis	GRE	0	0

Round One

Date	31 July 1996

Match	Date/Time	Location	Competitor	NOC	Result	Competitor	NOC
Match #1	31 Jul	Hall G	Boris Budayev	UZB	Decision (4-3) (5:00)	David Hohl	CAN
Match #2	31 Jul	Hall G	Valerij Verhušin	MKD	Decision (15-7) (5:00)	Rein Ozoline	AUS
Match #3	31 Jul	Hall G	Takuya Ota	JPN	Grand superiority (11-0) (3:00)	Felipe Guzmán	MEX
Match #4	31 Jul	Hall G	Ihar Kozyr	BLR	Decision (5-3) (6:24)	Árpád Ritter	HUN
Match #5	31 Jul	Hall G	Park Jang-Sun	KOR	Decision (4-1) (5:00)	Məmmədsalam Haciyev	AZE
Match #6	31 Jul	Hall G	Victor Peicov	MDA	Decision (7-1) (5:00)	Magomed Kurugliyev	KAZ
Match #7	31 Jul	Hall G	Radion Kertanti	SVK	Decision (4-3) (5:00)	Turan Ceylan	TUR
Match #8	31 Jul	Hall G	Kenny Monday	USA	Decision (1-1) (8:00)	Alberto Rodríguez	CUB
Match #9	31 Jul	Hall G	Buvaysar Saytiyev	RUS	Decision (8-0) (5:00)	Eisa Momeni	IRI
Match #10	31 Jul	Hall G	Alexander Leipold	GER	Decision (6-0) (5:00)	Lazaros Loizidis	GRE
Match #11	31 Jul	Hall G	Plamen Paskalev	BUL	Grand superiority (10-0) (1:41)	Anthony Avom	CMR

Round Two

Date	31 July 1996

Match	Date/Time	Location	Competitor	NOC	Result	Competitor	NOC
Match #1	31 Jul	Hall G	Valerij Verhušin	MKD	Fall (8-0) (2:04)	Boris Budayev	UZB
Match #2	31 Jul	Hall G	Takuya Ota	JPN	Decision (4-1) (5:00)	Ihar Kozyr	BLR
Match #3	31 Jul	Hall G	Park Jang-Sun	KOR	Decision (3-0) (6:11)	Victor Peicov	MDA
Match #4	31 Jul	Hall G	Kenny Monday	USA	Decision (5-1) (5:00)	Radion Kertanti	SVK
Match #5	31 Jul	Hall G	Buvaysar Saytiyev	RUS	Decision (3-1) (6:00)	Alexander Leipold	GER
Match #6	31 Jul	Hall G	Plamen Paskalev	BUL

Quarter-Finals

Date	1 August 1996

Match	Date/Time	Location	Competitor	NOC	Result	Competitor	NOC
Match #1	01 Aug	Hall G	Plamen Paskalev	BUL	Grand superiority (12-0) (1:15)	Valerij Verhušin	MKD
Match #2	01 Aug	Hall G	Park Jang-Sun	KOR	Decision (5-0) (5:00)	Takuya Ota	JPN
Match #3	01 Aug	Hall G	Kenny Monday	USA
Match #4	01 Aug	Hall G	Buvaysar Saytiyev	RUS

Semi-Finals

Date	1 August 1996

Match	Date/Time	Location	Competitor	NOC	Result	Competitor	NOC
Match #1	01 Aug	Hall G	Park Jang-Sun	KOR	Decision (5-3) (5:00)	Plamen Paskalev	BUL
Match #2	01 Aug	Hall G	Buvaysar Saytiyev	RUS	Decision (6-1) (5:00)	Kenny Monday	USA

Final Round

Date	1 August 1996

Match	Date/Time	Location	Competitor	NOC	Result	Competitor	NOC
Match 1/2	01 Aug	Hall G	Buvaysar Saytiyev	RUS	Decision (5-0) (5:00)	Park Jang-Sun	KOR
Match 3/4	01 Aug	Hall G	Takuya Ota	JPN	Decision (5-3) (5:16)	Plamen Paskalev	BUL
Match 5/6	01 Aug	Hall G	Alexander Leipold	GER	Default (0-0) (0:00)	Kenny Monday	USA
Match 7/8	01 Aug	Hall G	Victor Peicov	MDA	Default (0-0) (0:00)	Məmmədsalam Haciyev	AZE

Classification Round Two

Date	31 July 1996

Match	Date/Time	Location	Competitor	NOC	Result	Competitor	NOC
Match #1	31 Jul	Hall G	David Hohl	CAN	Decision (11-5) (5:00)	Rein Ozoline	AUS
Match #2	31 Jul	Hall G	Árpád Ritter	HUN	Grand superiority (12-0) (2:07)	Felipe Guzmán	MEX
Match #3	31 Jul	Hall G	Məmmədsalam Haciyev	AZE	Decision (4-0) (5:00)	Magomed Kurugliyev	KAZ
Match #4	31 Jul	Hall G	Alberto Rodríguez	CUB	Decision (7-0) (5:00)	Turan Ceylan	TUR
Match #5	31 Jul	Hall G	Eisa Momeni	IRI	Decision (3-0) (5:00)	Lazaros Loizidis	GRE
Match #6	31 Jul	Hall G	Anthony Avom	CMR

Classification Round Three

Date	31 July 1996

Match	Date/Time	Location	Competitor	NOC	Result	Competitor	NOC
Match #1	31 Jul	Hall G	David Hohl	CAN	Grand superiority (10-0) (3:56)	Anthony Avom	CMR
Match #2	31 Jul	Hall G	Məmmədsalam Haciyev	AZE	Decision (3-2) (7:04)	Árpád Ritter	HUN
Match #3	31 Jul	Hall G	Alberto Rodríguez	CUB	Decision (4-1) (7:45)	Eisa Momeni	IRI
Match #4	31 Jul	Hall G	Boris Budayev	UZB	Decision (4-2) (5:49)	Ihar Kozyr	BLR
Match #5	31 Jul	Hall G	Victor Peicov	MDA	Decision (5-0) (5:00)	Radion Kertanti	SVK
Match #6	31 Jul	Hall G	Alexander Leipold	GER

Classification Round Four

Date	1 August 1996

Match	Date/Time	Location	Competitor	NOC	Result	Competitor	NOC
Match #1	01 Aug	Hall G	Alexander Leipold	GER	Decision (10-2) (5:00)	David Hohl	CAN
Match #2	01 Aug	Hall G	Məmmədsalam Haciyev	AZE	Decision (6-2) (5:00)	Alberto Rodríguez	CUB
Match #3	01 Aug	Hall G	Victor Peicov	MDA	Decision (5-3) (5:00)	Boris Budayev	UZB
Match #4	01 Aug	Hall G	Takuya Ota	JPN	Decision (7-0) (5:00)	Valerij Verhušin	MKD

Classification Round Five

Date	1 August 1996

Match	Date/Time	Location	Competitor	NOC	Result	Competitor	NOC
Match #1	01 Aug	Hall G	Alexander Leipold	GER	Decision (3-0) (5:00)	Məmmədsalam Haciyev	AZE
Match #2	01 Aug	Hall G	Takuya Ota	JPN	Decision (5-4) (5:37)	Victor Peicov	MDA

Classification Round Six

Date	1 August 1996

Match	Date/Time	Location	Competitor	NOC	Result	Competitor	NOC
Match #1	01 Aug	Hall G	Plamen Paskalev	BUL	Decision (8-4) (5:00)	Alexander Leipold	GER
Match #2	01 Aug	Hall G	Takuya Ota	JPN	Decision (4-2) (7:04)	Kenny Monday	USA