[1] Flyweight was the lightest category, including wrestlers weighing up to 52 kilograms (114.6 lb).

[2] This Greco-Roman 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, removing the slight modification introduced in 1936 and used until 1948 (which had a reduced penalty for a loss by 2–1 decision).

At the end of each round, any wrestler with at least 5 points was eliminated.

This elimination continued until the medal rounds, which began when 3 wrestlers remained.

These 3 wrestlers each faced each other in a round-robin medal round (with earlier results counting, if any had wrestled another before); record within the medal round determined medals, with bad points breaking ties.