Open Class, Men

There were only nine entries in the open class, with three pools of three. To obtain a fourth semi-finalist, the losers in the pools could advance via a repêchage pool. The heavy favorite was Anton Geesink, the Dutchman who was World Champion in 1961 and 1964. The Japanese had chosen Akio Kaminaga to carry their hopes. Kaminaga was near the end of his career, but had been runner-up at the World Championships in 1958. Geesink and Kaminaga were unfortunately drawn in the same pool, and Geesink defeated him by decision. As expected, Kaminaga came through the losers’ pool. In the semi-finals Geesink faced Theodore Boronovskis (AUS), who yielded to a 12-second win by sasae-tsuri-komi-ashi. Kaminaga won the other semi-final over the German, Klaus Glahn, in 4:10 via tai-otoshi. The final was the one everyone had wanted – Geesink against Kaminaga. As the match started, the Japanese coaches were so intense that they leaned against the edge of the mat, drawing a caution from the referee. The match was close for nine minutes, when Kaminaga went for tai-otoshi, only to have Geesink counter with uranage, and threw the Japanese to the mat, and applied a basic hold, kesa-gatame. A few seconds later, the referee signaled ippon, and Geesink had his gold medal. Geesink would later spend a brief time in Japan, where he became very popular, as a professional wrestler, and in 1965, he played Samson in an Italian biblical movie. He was eventually elected an IOC Member.