Welterweight, Freestyle (≤66 kg), Men

Turkey’s Ramazan Şahin was favored, having won the 2007 World and 2008 European Championships. In the 2007 World final, he had beaten Cuban Geandry Garzón and, because FILA does not seed the wrestlers, they met in the first round, with Şahin winning again. He then defeated two-time junior world champion Mehdi Taghavi of Iran and 2006 World silver medalist Otar Tushishvili of Georgia. The final matched Şahin against Ukraine’s Andriy Stadnik and was extremely close, going three periods, with the final period resulting in a 2-2 tie, but Şahin won the gold medal on officials’ decision. Tushishvili shared the bronze medals with Indian Sushil Kumar, who would come back at London in 2012 and win the silver medal. Stadnik’s wife, Mariya, had won a bronze medal in women’s flyweight four days earlier, and would improve to a silver at London in 2012, both times representing Azerbaijan