Men's Greco-Roman at the Games of the I Olympiad | ||||||||||
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Venue | Panathinaiko Stadium | |||||||||
Dates | 10–11 April | |||||||||
Competitors | 5 from 4 nations | |||||||||
Medalists | ||||||||||
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Wrestling at the 1896 Summer Olympics | |
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Greco-Roman | men |
The men's Greco-Roman was the only wrestling event on the Wrestling at the 1896 Summer Olympics programme.
No weight classes existed for the wrestling competition, held in the Panathinaiko Stadium which meant that there would only be one winner among competitors of all sizes. It was the only time that an open wrestling event was held; in 1904, when wrestling returned to the Olympic programme, weight classes were implemented.
The rules used were similar to modern Greco-Roman wrestling, although there was no time limit, and not all leg holds were forbidden (in contrast to current rules). Apart from the two Greek contestants, all competitors had previously been active in other sports. The wrestling competition was held on 10 April, except for the continuation of the final match on 11 April.
The tournament used ancient Greek single-elimination rules. There were no brackets as under modern single-elimination rules; instead, all participants in a round were paired off with one bye if a round had an odd number of participants left. This format could result in a semifinals round with only 3 competitors (as happened in both the 1896 wrestling and doubles tennis events, which started with 5 wrestlers/pairs: the first round had two matches, with one wrestler/pair having a bye, and the second round had only one match, with another wrestler/pair having a bye; a modern tournament would have had one match in the first round with three byes, leading to two semifinals).
Rank | Wrestler | Nation |
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Carl Schuhmann | Germany | |
Georgios Tsitas | Greece | |
Stephanos Christopoulos | Greece | |
4 | Launceston Elliot | Great Britain |
4 | Momcsilló Tapavicza | Hungary |
Quarterfinals 10 April | Semifinals 10 April | Final 11 April | ||||||||
Fall | ||||||||||
Carl Schuhmann (GER) | Fall | |||||||||
Launceston Elliot (GBR) | Carl Schuhmann (GER) | |||||||||
Georgios Tsitas (GRE) | ||||||||||
Georgios Tsitas (GRE) | ||||||||||
Stephanos Christopoulos (GRE) | Stephanos Christopoulos (GRE) | |||||||||
Momcsilló Tapavicza (HUN) | ||||||||||
Stephanos Christopoulos of Greece faced Momcsilló Tapavicza of Hungary in the first match. The pair were nearly evenly matched, with Christopoulous declared the winner after Tapavicza retired due to injury.
In the second match, gymnastics champion Carl Schuhmann of Germany faced the weightlifting champion, Launceston Elliot of the United Kingdom. Schuhmann won easily.
Georgios Tsitas, a Greek, had a bye in the first round, joining Christopoulos and Schuhmann as the three semifinalists.
Schuhmann had a bye for the semifinals, so in the single semifinal match, the two Greeks, Tsitas and Christopoulos, faced off to be Schuhmann's opponent in the final.
Tsitas won after Christopoulous suffered a shoulder injury and was forced to retire; despite this, Christopoulous won the bronze medal.
In the final, Tsitas faced Schuhmann, and the bout lasted 40 minutes before it had to be postponed on account of darkness, as the sun had begun to set.
On the next morning (11 April), Schuhmann and Tsitas returned to their match, and Schuhmann captured the victory shortly thereafter with a fall.
The 1896 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the I Olympiad and commonly known as Athens 1896, were the first international Olympic Games held in modern history. Organised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which had been created by French aristocrat Pierre de Coubertin, the event was held in Athens, Greece, from 6 to 15 April 1896.
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Carl August Berthold Schuhmann was a German athlete who won four Olympic titles in gymnastics and wrestling at the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens, becoming the most successful athlete at the inaugural Olympics of the modern era. He also competed in weightlifting.
Germany competed at the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece. The Germans were the third most successful nation in terms of both gold medals and total medals (13). Gymnastics was the sport in which Germany excelled. The German team had 19 athletes. The Germans had 75 entries in 26 events, taking 13 medals.
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Hungary competed at the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece. Austrian and Hungarian results at early Olympic Games are generally kept separate despite the union of the two nations as Austria-Hungary at the time.
Momčilo Tapavica was an all-around sportsperson, competing in tennis, weightlifting, wrestling. Tapavica achieved his best result in tennis by winning the singles bronze medal at the 1896 Summer Olympics, making him the first ethnic Serb, Slav and Hungarian citizen to win an Olympic medal. After his sporting career Tapavica became a well-known architect.
Georgios Tsitas was a Greek wrestler. He competed at the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens.
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Greece, the previous host of the 2004 Olympics at Athens, competed at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, People's Republic of China. They were represented by the Hellenic Olympic Committee, which announced on July 28, 2008, the 156 Greek athletes to compete in Beijing, composed of 84 men and 72 women, the largest Greek Olympic team ever excluding the home team of the Athens 2004 Olympics. Greece took part in archery, athletics, basketball, boxing, canoeing, cycling, diving, gymnastics, judo, rowing, sailing, shooting, swimming, synchronized swimming, table tennis, taekwondo, tennis, triathlon, beach volleyball, water polo, weightlifting and wrestling.