Middleweight, Freestyle (≤76 kg), Men

The heavy favorite was Russian Buvaysar Saytiyev, who came to Sydney having won three World and three European Championships, and the Olympic welterweight gold medal in 1996. German Alexander Leipold had won several medals at major internationals, and was expected to medal, but was not expected to defeat Saytiyev. Saytiyev was drawn in pool one along with unheralded American Brandon Slay. Both won their first matches and then faced each other with Slay winning a huge upset, 4-3, eliminating Saytiyev from the knockout round. In the knockout round Slay won two more matches to face Leipold in the final, but the German overwhelmed him, 4-0, to seemingly win the gold medal.

That lasted about three weeks until Leipold’s doping test turned positive for huge amounts of nandrolone, an anabolic steroid. He was disqualified and Slay moved up to the gold medal. The original bronze medalist, and fourth-place finisher, Mun Ui-Je (KOR) and Adem Bereket (TUR), were then moved up to the silver and bronze medals, respectively. All three of the new medalists received their medals at a special ceremony set up by NBC Television in New York City.