Grönberg, Axel

In 1946 he became the third at the European Championship in freestyle wrestling, and in 1947 he took the “bronze” at the European Championship in Greco-Roman wrestling.

At the 1948 Summer Olympics in London, he fought in Greco-Roman wrestling in the category of up to 79 kilograms (average weight). The elimination of the tournament took place as penalties accumulated. Three judges judged the fight, no penalty points were awarded for a clear victory, 1 penalty point was awarded for a victory by decision of the judges at any ratio of votes, 2 penalty points were awarded for a loss by a decision 2-1, a loss of 3-0 by a decision and a net loss were punishable by 3 penalty points.

The title was disputed by 13 people. Axel Grönberg confidently defeated all rivals, winning three of six fights cleanly, and became the Olympic champion.

In 1949 he played at the European Championship in freestyle wrestling, and won the “silver”. In 1950, he performed at the first, after almost thirty years, World Championship in Greco-Roman wrestling, where he won a landslide victory, becoming the world champion.

At the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, he fought in the category of up to 79 kilograms (average weight). The elimination of the tournament took place as penalties accumulated. Three judges judged the fight, no penalty points were awarded for a clear victory, 1 penalty point was awarded for a victory in points at any ratio of votes, a point loss at any ratio of votes or a clear defeat was punishable by 3 penalty points. If a wrestler scored 5 or more penalty points, he was eliminated from the tournament. When there were only three wrestlers left, they played medals among themselves (if they did not meet in fights before the final round). After the start of the final fights, the wrestlers could continue to perform with more than five penalty points.

The title was disputed by 11 people. This time, Axel Grönberg was not so confident, but nonetheless consistently won against everyone on points. Since Axel Grönberg had already defeated the two finalists Kalervo Rauhal and Nikolai Belov before the final fights, he did not participate in the final, becoming a two-time Olympic champion.

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In 1953 he remained second at the World Championships, and in 1954 he performed at the World Championships in freestyle wrestling, where he could only enter the top six.

He died in 1986.

• Axel Grönberg - Olympic statistics at Sports-Reference.com
• Axel Grönberg - profile on International Wrestling Database