The men's freestyle heavyweight competition at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome took place from 1 to 6 September at the Basilica of Maxentius.

[1] Heavyweight was the heaviest category, including wrestlers weighing over 87 kilograms (191.8 lb).

[2] 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.

[2][1] With three wrestlers left, the remaining men used a round-robin to determine medals rather than giving one competitor a bye in round 6.

Dietrich defeated Dzarasov then tied Kaplan, finishing with the best record against the other medalists to take the gold medal.