This freestyle wrestling competition consists of a single-elimination tournament, with a repechage used to determine the winner of two bronze medals. The two finalists face off for gold and silver medals. Each wrestler who loses to one of the two finalists moves into the repechage, culminating in a pair of bronze medal matches featuring the semifinal losers each facing the remaining repechage opponent from their half of the bracket.
Each bout consists of a single round within a six-minute limit. The wrestler who scores more points is the winner.
Narsingh Yadav failed both the A and B sample doping tests on 25 June and 5 July, but was reinstated on 3 August when the National Anti-Doping Agency of India gave him a clean record on grounds that he had been a victim of sabotage.[2] However the World Anti-Doping Agency appealed against this decision to drop the doping charges, following which Yadav was suspended for four years and disqualified from the Olympics by the Court of Arbitration on 18 August, one day before the competition and after the draw.[3]