Part 2 - LA84 Foundation

11. Competition Management
by Sport
352
11.22
Wrestling
The Olympic wrestling competitions
were divided into Greco-Roman and
freestyle with 10 weight classes each.
In the 10 weight classes of the Greco-
Roman, 202 wrestlers from 50 countries
competed, and freestyle drew 256
wrestlers from 64 countries in the
10 weight classes.
The Greco-Roman competitions were
held from September 18 to 22 and
freestyle from September 27 to
October 1 at the Sangmu Gymnasium
in the military sports unit in Songnam
city.
The U.S.S.R. captured eight out of the
20 golds at stake, displaying its
supremacy as a wrestling powerhouse.
Five countries, namely, the U.S.S.R.,
the U.S.A., Japan, the Republic of
Korea and Bulgaria, were represented
in all 20 events, while Hungary and
Poland entered wrestlers in all 10
events of the Greco-Roman. Host
Korea captured two golds.
Bouts were staged on A, B and C mats
according to the schedules without
involving any problems. Despite the
strength required for the sport, no
doping violations were reported
among wrestlers.
11.22.1
—————————————–
Competition Preparations
The SLOOC in March 1988 organized
the Wrestling Operations staffed by the
commissioner, secretary-general,
director, four managers and 22
officers. The operations moved its
offices to the wrestling venue on April
20 to start the preparation for the competitions.
By August 24, all the staffing
of the operations was completed.
The staffing was comprised of five
SLOOC staff members, officials, 213
support personnel, 387 volunteers,
and six temporary employees, totalling
611 persons.
To enable them to perform assigned
tasks efficiently, job education was
conducted for the entire operation personnel
in April 1988, followed by siteadaptation
training in May, the first
rehearsal in June focusing on specific
assignments, and in-depth siteadaptation
education in July. Three
rehearsals were conducted in
sequence during August.
The Sangmu Gymnasium is located
8.4 kilometers from the Olympic Village,
about a 15 minute drive; its combined
space is 7,810 square meters; the
stand covers 2,517 square meters, and
the competition area occupies 1,200
square meters. The three-storey structure
was used for the Seoul Asian
Games. Three podiums were installed
side by side, and three mats, 12-meters
square and sexagonal in shape, were
provided; the spectator seating capacity
was 5,000.
The gymnasium provided a lounge for
wrestlers and officials, shower, sauna,
first-aid facilities and medical room. A
warm-up site was provided in the gymnasium
precinct with a 52x52m
square training platform, with 16 mats.
Prior to the competitions, from
September 3-19, each team was
allowed training for one hour and 20
minutes per day, while during the competition
period, the training were
limited to one hour a day per team.
Additional requests for training was
received from each team one day
before the competition, and one hour
each was allocated for the extra
training.
The equipment and implements complied
with the rules set by the International
Amateur Wrestling Federation
(FILA), and the organizers decided to
secure the required equipment from
local manufacturers as much as possible.
Three sets of podiums were
secured from the Handok Company
under the Olympic marketing arrangement,
while the mats and covers for
both competition and training and 50
training dummies were manufactured
by HGB Backstrand of Sweden. Fifteen
weigh-in scales and 11 printers were
secured from foreign manufacturers.
The equipment and implements
secured included: 62 units of 7 items
for the conduct of the competitions;
4,700 units of 31 items for competition
support; 2,600 units of 27 items for
weigh-in; and 190 units of 24 items for
warm-up use.
Winners by Weight Class (Free Style)
Weight
48kg
52kg
57kg
62kg
68kg
74kg
82kg
90kg
100kg
130kg
NOC
Japan
Japan
U.S.S.R.
U.S.A.
U.S.S.R.
U.S.A.
Korea
U.S.S.R.
Rumania
U.S.S.R.
Athlete
Takashi Kobayashi
Mitsuru Sato
Serguei Beloglazov
John Smith
Arsen Fadzaev
Kenneth Monday
Han Myung-woo
Makharbek Khadartsev
Vasile Puscasu
David Gobedjchvili
Winners by Weight Class (Greco-Roman)
Weight
48kg
52kg
57kg
62kg
68kg
74kg
82kg
90kg
100kg
130kg
NOC
Italy
Norway
Hungary
U.S.S.R.
U.S.S.R.
Korea
U.S.S.R.
Bulgaria
Poland
U.S.S.R.
Athlete
Vincenzo Menaza
Jon Rommingen
Andras Sike
Kamandar Madjidov
Levon Djoulfalakian
Kim Young-nam
Mihail Mamiachvili
Atanas Komchev
Andrzej Wronski
Alexa Kareline
11.22.2
Conduct of the Competitions
—————————————–
The first weigh-in for each weight
category was held at the training hall
of the Sangmu Gymnasium from 7 p.m.
to 7:30 p.m., on the day before the first
competition day of the category
concerned.
Draws for pairings were conducted at
the same time. The second weigh-in
for each weight category was held at
the same place, on the evening of the
first competition day of the category
concerned, within one hour and 30
minutes of the end of the last bout.
The third weigh-in for each weight
category was held at the same place,
on the evening of the second competition
day of the category concerned
within one hour and 30 minutes of the
end of the last bout. The FILA Technical
Committee supervised the weighin
procedures according to the FILA
rules.
The draw for pairing numbers was
conducted for each weight category
during the weigh-in time on September
17, 18, and 19 for the Greco-
Roman and on September 26, 27 and
28 for the freestyle.
According to the draw results, two
groups were formed for each weight
category, with odd numbers forming A
group and even numbers forming B
group, to stage preliminaries. Scoring
applied only when more than four
competitors entered, while events
which drew only two or three competitors
did not go through a preliminary,
but faced a league system. In the