Wrestling at the 1908 Summer Olympics – Men's freestyle middleweight

The freestyle middleweight was one of five freestyle wrestling weight classes contested on the Wrestling at the 1908 Summer Olympics programme. Like all other wrestling events, it was open only to men. The middleweight was the second-heaviest weight class, allowing wrestlers of up to 73 kilograms (161 lb).^[1] Each nation could enter up to 12 wrestlers.^[2]

Men's middleweight freestyle wrestling at the Games of the IV Olympiad
Venue	White City Stadium
Dates	July 21 (R16, quarters, semis) July 22 (final, bronze match)
Competitors	12 from 3 nations
Medalists
Stanley Bacon  Great Britain George de Relwyskow  Great Britain Frederick Beck  Great Britain
1920 →

Competition format

The event was a single-elimination tournament with a bronze medal match between the semifinal losers. The final and bronze medal match were best two-of-three, while all other rounds were a single bout. Bouts were 15 minutes, unless one wrestler lost by fall (two shoulders on the ground at the same time). Other than falls, decisions were made by the judges or, if they did not agree, the referee.

Wrestlers could "take hold how and where they please[d]" except that "hair, flesh, ears, private parts, or clothes may not be seized"; striking, scratching, twisting fingers, butting, and kicking were prohibited. Holds "obtained that the fear of breakage or dislocation of a limb shall induce a wrestler to give the fall" were outlawed, and particularly the double-nelson, hammerlock, strangle, half-strangle, scissors, hang, flying mare with palm uppermost, and the foot twist.^[3]

Results

Standings

Place	Wrestler	Nation
1	Stanley Bacon	Great Britain
2	George de Relwyskow	Great Britain
3	Frederick Beck	Great Britain
4	Carl Andersson	Sweden
5	Edgar Bacon	Great Britain
	Aubrey Coleman	Great Britain
	John Craige	United States of America
	Fred Narganes	United States of America
9	Gerald Bradshaw	Great Britain
	Harry Challstorp	Sweden
	Horace Chenery	Great Britain
	Arthur Wallis	Great Britain

Bracket

	First Round			Quarter-finals			Semi-finals			Final
	Fall (2:44)
	Aubrey Coleman (GBR)
				Fall (5:17)
	Arthur Wallis (GBR)
				Aubrey Coleman (GBR)
	Fall (4:48)
				Stanley Bacon (GBR)
	Stanley Bacon (GBR)
							Fall (3:20)
	Henry Chenery (GBR)
							Stanley Bacon (GBR)
							Frederick Beck (GBR) [lower-alpha 1]
				Fall (2:49)
				Frederick Beck (GBR)
				Frederico Narganes (USA)
										2–0 (decision/decision)
										Stanley Bacon (GBR)
	Fall (1:55)
										George de Relwyskow (GBR)
	Edgar Bacon (GBR)
				Fall (6:30)
	Gerald Bradshaw (GBR)
				Edgar Bacon (GBR)
	Fall (3:10)
				George de Relwyskow (GBR)
	George de Relwyskow (GBR)
							Decision
	Harry Challstorp (SWE)
							George de Relwyskow (GBR)
							Carl Andersson (SWE)[lower-alpha 1]
				Decision
				Carl Andersson (SWE)
				John Craige (USA)

References

1. "Wrestling at the 1908 London Summer Games: Men's Middleweight, Freestyle". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 18 April 2020. Retrieved 28 February 2019.
2. Official Report, p. 40.
3. Official Report, pp. 621–22.

Notes

1. After a protest from his semi-final was rejected, Andersson refused to participate in the bronze medal match, giving Beck third place

Sources

• Cook, Theodore Andrea (1908). The Fourth Olympiad, Being the Official Report. London: British Olympic Association.
• De Wael, Herman (2001). "Freestyle Wrestling 1908". Herman's Full Olympians. Retrieved 28 May 2006.