[3] 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, with a slight modification.

Çoban's loss moved him to 4 points; Charlier's and Dunn's eliminated them.

[4] All three bouts were won by fall, with the winners staying on their starting point totals (Palusalu at 1, Nyström at 2, Klapuch at 4).

The loss was not enough to eliminate Akerlindh, who started with 1 point and ended with 4; he withdrew after the round anyway.

A Palusalu win would result in him taking gold with fewer points than either other remaining wrestler and no possible bouts left for the Estonian.

A win by split decision over Palusalu would leave the men tied on points and give Nyström the head-to-head tie-breaker, but Nyström would still need to face Klapuch and therefore would need to go scoreless in that final bout—that is, win by fall, to take the gold.