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Peter Scrivener

Olympic countdown - 11 days - Great grappling


Finland's Alfred Asikainen (left) and Russia's Martin Klein took part in the longest wrestling match in Olympic history in 1912 On Sunday, we looked at the domination of the Finnish distance runners in the early part of the last century. Well, it turns out that running a long way very quickly was not the only event the Finns excelled at in the pre-war years.

At the 1912 Stockholm Games, they claimed three of the five Greco-Roman wrestling titles on offer and picked up seven out of 15 medals.

They won the featherweight, lightweight and heavyweight divisions, but it was their performances in the middleweight and light-heavyweight that really made statisticians sit up and take notice.

In the latter event, the final between Sweden's Anders Ahlgren and Finland's Ivar Böhling went on, and on, and on, and on and, well, you get my drift.

It lasted an incredible nine hours before it was declared a draw, and as the rules stated that one wrestler must defeat another to win gold, no gold was awarded and they both had to settle for silver.

But if you thought that match may have been a bit of a bind to watch, then check out the middleweight semi-final between Finland's Alfred Asikainen and Russia's Martin Klein.

It was already being billed as a bit of a grudge match as Russia had been in control of Finland since 1908 and they were more than a little irked that the Finns were competing under their own flag.

The pair grappled for over 11 hours, the longest bout in history, before Klein pinned Asikainen to advance to the final.

But the Russian was so exhausted that he could not wrestle the next day, handing Sweden's Claes Johansson the gold.

Klein and Asikainen were afforded brief rests every 30 minutes, but their match led to time limits being imposed from the 1924 Games onward.

Peter Scrivener is a BBC Sport Journalist. Our FAQs should answer any questions you have.


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  • 1. At 09:52am on 28 Jul 2008, ekkeri wrote:

    Peter, it's great to read these stories, but i have to make one correction to this one.
    Martin Klein is today known as the first Estonian olympic medallist and he should not be considered a russian.
    In 1912 Estonia had no chance to field an olympic squad like the finns could. It is wrong to suggest that Klein's victory was somehow a grudge match. Martin Klein represented Imperial Russia only because he had no other chance.
    This longest wrestling bout is well remembered in Estonia as a match-up between an estonian and a finn. And on that day the estonian won.

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  • 2. At 12:03pm on 28 Jul 2008, speople wrote:

    I would beg to differ, ekkeri. Since he CHOSE to wrestle for Russia, then it is a RUSSIAN medal. Simple as that.

    It's like saying that a Scottish, Welsh, or English medal is Scottish, English or Welsh, when in fact it isn't. It's a medal for the United Kingdom. Or that a medal won by a Californian olympian is a medal for California.

    Politics has NO place in sport. And therefore medals won by a combined team or country can not, should not, and never will be, considered as a medal having been won for any particular country/place should it split away at a later date.

    It's a Russian medal, not Estonian. Get over it.

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  • 3. At 12:11pm on 28 Jul 2008, ekkeri wrote:

    Yes, officially it is a Russian medal and in official records should always remain so. However, Klein was an estonian wrestler and his win should not be interpreted as big Russia beating poor little Finland.
    Klein and Asikainen were in fact good friends and had battled before.
    I don't understand why i shouldn't make this clear.

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