Freestyle wrestling at the 1972 Summer Olympics - up to 57 kg

Fight on 1972 Summer Olympics
Greco-Roman style
Up to 48 kg		Up to 74 kg
Up to 52 kg		Up to 82 kg
Up to 57 kg		Up to 90 kg
Up to 62 kg		Up to 100 kg
Up to 68 kg		Over 100 kg
Freestyle
Up to 48 kg		Up to 74 kg
Up to 52 kg		Up to 82 kg
Up to 57 kg		Up to 90 kg
Up to 62 kg		Up to 100 kg
Up to 68 kg		Over 100 kg

The freestyle wrestling competitions in the framework of the 1972 Olympic lightweight champion (up to 57 kilograms) were held in Munich from August 27 to August 31, 1971 at the Wrestling-Judo Hall.

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 category 28 participants fought. The youngest participant was 17-year-old Prem Nath, the oldest 31-year-old Arturo Tanagin. The world champion of 1970 and 1971, Hideaki Yanagida, was considered as a favorite. The Japanese wrestler would have been out of competition, but Rich Sanders , silver medalist of the 1968 Olympic Games and world champion in 1969, but in the flyweight, moved into the light weight. During the tournament, they easily dealt with their rivals, and in the fourth round they came to each other. The victory in this meeting was won by Yanagid, and after this meeting it could be considered that the fate of the first two places was largely decided. And so it happened: in the seventh round, at the sixth minute, Yanagida extinguished the 17-year-old Indian youth Prema Natha who phenomenally appeared at the games, and in the seventh minute Sanders put Laszlo Klingu on the shoulder blades of the Hungarian. After this round, only Yanagida and Sanders had the right to further performance, but they had already met among themselves, and according to the result of that meeting, “gold” and “silver” were distributed. Laszlo Kling received a “bronze”, since he had a little less penalty points than Nath.

From left to right: Sanders, Yanagida, Kling