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

[1] Lightweight was the fourth-lightest category, including wrestlers weighing 62 to 67 kilograms (136.7 to 147.7 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.

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 round—if two competitors remained, they faced off head-to-head; if only one, he was the gold medalist.

[2][1] Wilson's victory over Syniavskiy in round 4 turned out to be the gold medal winning match, as those two wrestlers were the only ones left with fewer than 6 points at the end of round 6.