The men's freestyle welterweight competition at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome took place from 1 to 6 September at the Basilica of Maxentius. Each nation was limited to one competitor. The Welterweight was the fourth-heaviest category, including wrestlers weighing .
This freestyle wrestling competition continued to use the "bad points" elimination system introduced at the 1928 Summer Olympics for Greco-Roman and at the 1932 Summer Olympics for freestyle wrestling, though adjusted the point values slightly. Wins by fall continued to be worth 0 points and wins by decision continued to be worth 1 point. Losses by fall, however, were now worth 4 points (up from 3). Losses by decision were worth 3 points (consistent with most prior years, though in some losses by split decision had been worth only 2 points). Ties were now allowed, worth 2 points for each wrestler. The elimination threshold was also increased from 5 points to 6 points. The medal round concept, used in 1952 and 1956 requiring a round-robin amongst the medalists even if one or more finished a round with enough points for elimination, was used only if exactly three wrestlers remained after a roundâÂÂif two competitors remained, they faced off head-to-head; if only one, he was the gold medalist.
Rantanen withdrew after his bout.
With three remaining wrestlers, the competition used a round-robin to determine the medalists rather than giving one wrestler a bye in round 6. Ogan defeated Bashir, but Blubaugh defeated both of them to take the gold medal.
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