Greco-Roman wrestling at the 1968 Summer Olympics - up to 57 kg

Fight on 1968 Summer Olympics
Greco-Roman style
Up to 52 kg		Up to 78 kg
Up to 57 kg		Up to 87 kg
Up to 63 kg		Up to 97 kg
Up to 70 kg		Over 97 kg
Freestyle
Up to 52 kg		Up to 78 kg
Up to 57 kg		Up to 87 kg
Up to 63 kg		Up to 97 kg
Up to 70 kg		Over 97 kg
← 1964

Greco-Roman wrestling competitions at the 1968 Lightweight Championships (up to 57 kilograms) took place in Mexico City from October 23 to 26, 1968 in Ice Rink of the Insurgents.

The tournament was held according to the system with the accrual of penalty points.

• 0 penalty points in the event of a net victory or disqualification of the opponent, as well as failure to appear;
• 0.5 penalty points in case of victory due to obvious technical superiority (by eight or more points);
• 1 penalty point in case of victory by points (with a difference of less than eight points);
• 2 penalty points in case of a productive draw;
• 2.5 penalty points in the event of an inconclusive draw (passive draw);
• 3 penalty points in case of defeat by points (with a difference of less than eight points);
• 3.5 penalty points in case of defeat due to the obvious technical superiority of the opponent (by eight or more points);
• 4 penalty points in the event of a net loss or disqualification, as well as failure to appear.

The three remaining wrestlers reached the final, where they held meetings with each other. The meetings between the finalists, held in preliminary fights, were offset. The fight according to the tournament regulations lasted 9 minutes in three three-minute periods, a less active fighter was put on the ground. Overtime could be set.

In the bantamweight 24 participants fought. The youngest participant was 19-year-old Jozef Lipen , the oldest 34-year-old Arthur Spaenhoven. The contenders for the medals were World Champion 1967 Jon Baciu , European Champion 1967 Janos Varga and European Champion 1968 Hristo Traykov . They could compete with Ivan Kochergin , European champion in 1968, but at flyweight. The tournament was very intense: the wrestlers successively won and lost, and ultimately the unexpected outcome took place in the sixth round: after all the meetings with a draw, absolutely all wrestlers dropped out of the tournament. Three wrestlers (Kochergin, Bachiu and Greek Moshidis) scored 7.5 penalty points, and Varga had 6.5, which allowed him to be declared the winner of the competition. Between the remaining three fighters, a tournament was held for the remaining medals. Kochergin had already met Moshidis, and made the meeting a draw. The first was a meeting between Bachiu and Moshidis, where Bachiu was stewing a Greek athlete, almost depriving him of a chance for medals. After that, Kochergin met with Bachiu, and in this meeting both fighters were disqualified for passivity. Thus, with one victory and one defeat, Bachiu won the silver, Kochergin and Moshidis had one draw and one defeat, but Moshidis had a clear defeat on the “carcass”, and Kochergin got the bronze medal.