Wrestling at the 1956 Summer Olympics – Men's freestyle featherweight
The men's freestyle featherweight competition at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne took place from 28 November to 1 December at the Royal Exhibition Building. Nations were limited to one competitor. Competition format. 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, as modified in 1952 (adding medal rounds and making all losses worth 3 points—from 1936 to 1948 losses by split decision only cost 2). Each  round featured all wrestlers pairing off and wrestling one bout (with one wrestler having a bye if there were an odd number). The loser received 3 points. The winner received 1 point if the win was by decision and 0 points if the win was by fall. 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. Results. Medal rounds. Mewis's round 2 victory over Penttilä counted for the medal rounds. Sasahara received a walkover victory over Penttilä, then defeated Mewis by decision to go 2–0 against the other medalists and win the gold medal. Mewis's 1–1 record against Sasahara and Penttilä gave the Belgian silver. Penttilä finished with bronze, 0–2 against the other two medalists.