Angry Swede throws down medal and quits

The gold medallist, who kissed the Chinese medal bearer after receiving his gold, said Abrahamian's walkout "did in a way spoil the victory ceremony for me".

"Certainly one can always question decisions made in the course of refereeing, but in sports it is appropriate to show sportsmanship and accept the results," Minguzzi said.

Hungary's Zoltan Fodor, an outsider who said he "never dreamed of reaching the final" won the silver.

The International Olympic Committee said it was investigating the dispute with the wrestling federation FILA, which Abrahamian said "does not play fair".

"We are in contact with the wrestling federation to establish the exact facts," IOC spokeswoman Emmanuelle Moreau said.

Abrahamian later said he believed his loss to the eventual gold medallist Minguzzi was "totally unjustified". The wrestler said his friends "called me just 20 minutes before the (bronze) competition, begging me to compete".

"I decided that I had come this far and didn't want to let them down, so I wrestled," he said.

Swedish coach Leo Myllari said: "It's all politics."

Myllari did not say if he intended to lodge a formal protest over the decision by referee Jean-Marc Petoud of Switzerland, judge Lee Ronald Mackay of Canada, and mat chairman Guillermo Orestes Molina of Cuba.

(Additional reporting by Simon Denyer; editing by Keith Weir)