Gerry Martina achieved the finest result in Irish Olympic wrestling history when he finished 4th in the freestyle wrestling at the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games – competing without any official support, managing himself throughout the entire tournament in conditions of considerable adversity.

He won his opening bout against Greek champion Spyros Defteraios and received a bye in the second round. In his third bout against Australian Kevin Coote he had arrived at the venue twelve hours early, unable to establish when his scheduled bout was to take place and refused admission to the officials’ room to find out.

In his final bout against Boris Kulayev of the USSR – the eventual silver medallist – Martina was consistently the superior wrestler but was pinned when the Russian applied what he described as ‘an illegal stranglehold’ with neither referee nor judges intervening. He later discovered his throat had been cut by the force of the hold.

Without an official in his corner to advise him, he was unable to mount a formal protest despite encouragement from American officials who witnessed the bout. His 4th place remains the highest achieved by an Irish wrestler in Olympic competition.

He went on to compete at the Rome 1960 Olympics.