the Japanese star had a nagging feeling that she had more left to prove At the 2023 World Wrestling Championships she got one step closer to making her ultimate dream come true Olympics.com spoke to the champion to find out what that dream is One would not expect a victory in a semi-final to matter so much to the 24-year-old who was already a three-time world champion as well as an Olympic But it was what happened to Susaki in the days - and years - prior that had led to the uncontrollable release View this post on Instagram A post shared by Olympic Wrestling (@unitedworldwrestling) Susaki has never lost an international match in her career The Japanese star did not concede a single point in the women's 50kg event to claim gold in her Olympic debut But there was one factor that nagged her: She was an Olympic champion The wrestling great who has never been beaten internationally lost at the national worlds trials to Irie Yuki. Missing the 2019 World Championships also meant that Susaki would not compete at her home Olympic Games. She was spared that heartbreak by chance as Irie's poor performance in Nur-Sultan led to Susaki getting selected to represent Japan at Tokyo 2020. Determined not to go through the same ordeal ahead of Paris 2024, Susaki trained hard to win the 2023 world title and secure an Olympic quota for Japan. But here, once again, she was faced with a setback. Susaki had trained so hard that she injured her knee 19 days before the women's 50kg final, once again leaving her Olympic fate in limbo. View this post on Instagram A post shared by The Olympic Games (@olympics) Sidelined days before the start of the tournament that would determine her Paris 2024 destiny Susaki found inspiration in an unlikely source – a basketball team "Coach Tom Hovasse kept telling the players 'believe' "When I had a hard time (with injury) Even though you are now having a difficult time We believe that you will go to Paris Olympic as the world champion' and the faith made me the world champion.” Susaki tapped into that faith in Belgrade and had a strong run to reach the final including beating People's Republic of China Feng Ziqi 8-2 in the semi-final which also earned Japan a quota for Paris 2024 In the final she took down Otgonjargal Dolgorjav who was equally motivated as she was going for Mongolia’s first-ever gold medal at a world championships "I hadn't been able to wrestle before the match and the match was about to start," Susaki said afterwards “I injured myself 19 days ago during a practice session because I kept pushing myself too hard to win this world championship Now I’ve overcome the challenge and all those experiences broaden my abilities I will use them to build my confidence towards Paris 2024.” Picture by Patrick Smith/Getty ImagesSusaki Yui looked at basketball for inspiration during the 2023 World Wrestling Championships She also connected to the sport when she carried the flag alongside basketball player Rui Hachimura at the Opening Ceremony of Tokyo 2020 Paris holds a special place in Susaki’s heart It was here that she won the first of her four world titles If selected by Japan’s National Olympic Committee she will return to the French capital in 10 months as the reigning Olympic and world champion "I thought there was great meaning in trying to win the Olympics for the second time in a row as a world champion so I definitely wanted to become a world champion here and go to Paris one year later," Susaki said of the extra meaning behind her win in Belgrade "I went into the finals with this feeling.'' this time around Sasuki could also see her family in the stands While her relatives live five minutes from Makuhari Messe where the wrestling competition took place they could not watch her win gold because of Covid-19 restrictions Given Susaki's ability to put on a show it is a sight no one – not just her family – would want to miss "I appreciate being able to challenge to win Olympic gold medals again there would be more pressure ahead of Paris but I try to enjoy all of that and will make sure to win at the Games again.” By Ken Marantz Remina YOSHIMOTO successfully defended her 50kg title with a win over Umi ITO TOKYO (December 21) --  In a world without Yui SUSAKI Remina YOSHIMOTO might have accumulated a stack of world and perhaps Olympic titles by now and Yoshimoto continues to pick up any golds that Susaki decides to forego who for five years now has not lost to an opponent not named Susaki captured her second straight women's 50kg title at the Emperor's Cup All-Japan Championships on Saturday in Tokyo The 2021 world champion scored the decisive takedown midway through the second period then held on for a 3-2 victory over 2023 world U23 champion Umi ITO for her fourth career crown "I defended at the end when the match got tough," Yoshimoto said "I realize that I need to be able to defend by breaking the opponent down I'll keep that in mind at practice from now on." In other highlights on the third day of the four-day tournament at Tokyo's Yoyogi No world U20 champion Sakura ONISHI captured her first Emperor's Cup title at 59kg in dramatic fashion while Tatsuya SHIRAI picked up an elusive first crown two years after a historic victory at the world U23 Remina YOSHIMOTO tries to turn Umi ITO after scoring a second-period takedown in the women's 50kg final along with her triumph at the 2021 worlds that Susaki skipped Yoshimoto also captured international golds at the 2021 and 2022 Asian Championships might move up to 53kg in the run-up to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics That prospect was made more viable with the announcement by Akari FUJINAMI "I'm not thinking about that," Yoshimoto said I'm aiming to go to the World Championships next year at 50kg I'm looking at each and every match as they come and not thinking about what my weight class will be ahead." Another reality of Japanese women's wrestling is that there always seems to be someone new coming down the pipe coming up behind Yoshimoto is red-hot teenager Yuu KATSUME with whom she is well acquainted -- they are in the same training group Yoshimoto still trains at her alma mater of Shigakkan University where members of the team from the affiliated high school since a loss in the fifth grade of elementary school in 2019 "She's really motivating me," Yoshimoto said As for someday finally getting the best of Susaki "She's really got my number and it's been tough I want to find the strength and a way to win." Sakura ONISHI forces Sena NAGAMOTO to her back before securing a fall in the women's 59kg final Onishi was trailing 6-4 in the second period when she used a nifty move to take 2023 world U23 silver medalist Sena NAGAMOTO directly to her back and secure a fall at 4:50 Onishi had an overhook on Nagamoto's right arm But instead of going for an underhook on the other side she twisted to her own right while applying pressure on the arm My coach in the corner gave me advice and I had faith in it the move I used is one that I thought I would use at some time To do it on such a big stage gives me confidence." The 18-year-old Onishi stole the spotlight last spring when she took down one of Japan wrestling's biggest names at the Meiji Cup All-Japan Invitational Championships along with the preceding year's Emperor's Cup serve as domestic qualifiers for the World Championships Onishi stunned two-time Olympic champion Risako KINJO (formerly KAWAI) en route to the 59kg title Although she suffered a last-second loss to Kinjo in a playoff for the 59kg spot at the Non-Olympic Weight Category World Championships Onishi's credentials were well established With world U17 and U20 titles already in her collection Onishi can clinch a trip to her first senior World Championships with a victory at next year's Meiji Cup "The Meiji Cup [last year] was my first [senior] national-level tournament "I went there to enjoy the experience and I kind of flew under the radar I'm really grateful to all those who support me." Onishi is currently a freshman at powerhouse Nippon Sports Science University where Olympic champion Fujinami has taken her under her wing as a mentor Like all but one of Japan's 11 Olympic medalists Fujinami was not entered in the tournament but she was on hand to cheer on her teammate "Akari was watching me from the stands and that gave me strength," Onishi said with reverence It's because of Akari that I am here now." clamps down on Yudai TAKAHASHI in the freestyle 86kg final Shirai was on top of the world when he won the freestyle 86kg gold at the World U23 Championships a feat that made him the heaviest Japanese in history to win a world title on any age level as Hayato ISHIGURO established himself as the top dog at 86kg and qualified for the Paris Olympics Shirai failed to defend his world U23 title in 2023 who ironically would oust Ishiguro in Paris Shirai also had to settle for a bronze at this year's Asian Championships Shirai grinded to a 3-0 victory over Yudai TAKAHASHI in a battle between two immovable blocks of granite and former NSSU teammates scoring a stepout to go with a pair of activity points "We know each other pretty well," Shirai said Shirai had to get past veteran Sohsuke TAKATANI with all of those points coming on the activity clock "I think what Shirai needs to be concerned with is that he didn't score any technical points off me," Takatani said "You can't leave winning or losing up to the referee Takatani is a 12-time national champion who dropped back down to 86kg after spending the past three years at 92kg or 97kg -- and even taking a stab at Greco Currently the head coach at Takushoku University he won a world silver medal at 74kg in 2014 and made three Olympic appearances but never came home with a medal When younger brother Daichi won the 74kg silver in his Olympic debut last summer in Paris He says his immediate goal is to get to the 2026 Asian Games a tournament in which he has never taken part and which will be hosted by Japan his eyes may also be on the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics Godai MITANI scores the first of two quick-fire 4-point throws in the Greco 63kg final against Ayata SUZUKI Unheralded Ikuei University senior Godai MITANI pulled off the surprise of the day when he obliterated three-time Asian medalist Ayata SUZUKI with a pair of spectacular throws in the Greco 63kg final Mitani used an arm drag to lock up Suzuki's right arm then reached around and grabbed his chin and twisted him back and down to the mat for a quick 4 Suzuki came out of the scramble with a front headlock but Mitani worked his way up to lock up Suzuki's head and arm putting his schoolboy judo experience to work hit a hip throw for another 4 to end the match in 28 seconds where he worked hard and managed to make his way onto some collegiate podiums culminating with his first and only national collegiate championship this year although he is halfway to earning a trip to next year's World Championships Mitani said the All-Japan was his final tournament as he has already committed to joining the fire department in his home Hiroshima Prefecture after graduating Also putting a cap on their career was Ikuei teammate Hanano SAKURAI the younger sister of Paris Olympic 57kg champion Tsugumi SAKURAI will take a job as an elementary school teacher back home in Kochi Prefecture United World Wrestling 2025 - All rights reserved the reigning Olympic women's 50-kilogram wrestling champion who did not concede a single point en route to the gold medal three years ago in Tokyo 3-2 to India's Vinesh Vinesh at Paris' Champ-de-Mars Arena who won the first of her four world championships in Paris failed to find the destiny she was seeking against the 29-year-old Vinesh Susaki had a 2-0 lead before Vinesh tied the contest in the dying seconds and won as the last scorer I wasted all the support of so many people," Susaki said "I kept training for the Paris Olympics without doing anything else The loss tells me that I don't deserve to be an Olympic champion." Susaki's stated goal of winning four consecutive Olympic gold medals to emulate Japan's Kaori Icho who did it between 2004 and 2016 Fellow Japanese Nonoka Ozaki advanced to a bronze medal match in the women's 68-kg category with a 6-0 victory over Mongolia's Enkhsaikhan Delgermaa in the repechage round Nao Kusaka won two matches to reach the semifinals Olympics: Fumita advances to 60-kg Greco-Roman wrestling gold match To have the latest news and stories delivered to your inbox Simply enter your email address below and an email will be sent through which to complete your subscription Please check your inbox for a confirmation email Thank you for reaching out to us.We will get back to you as soon as possible In what is being called one of the greatest upsets in Olympic wrestling history, reigning women's 50-kilogram champion Yui Susaki of Japan was defeated by India's Vinesh Phogat in her first match at the Paris Olympics on Tuesday Phogat scored a takedown in the final seconds to stun the Tokyo 2020 gold medalist with a 3-2 victory at Champ-de-Mars Arena It was Susaki's first loss ever in 95 matches against non-Japanese opponents took a 2-0 lead early when the 29-year-old Indian gave up two passivity points Phogat was defensive throughout the early stages of the match and did everything she could to prevent the Japanese star from going for her legs Phogat used her core strength to prevent the defending champion from rolling her over knocking Susaki off balance and then charging ahead for a takedown with just five seconds left It was a stunning turn of events for Susaki Susaki challenged but it was overruled and victory belonged to Phogat who dropped to the mat before hugging her coach in delight "I kept training for the Paris Olympics without doing anything else," Susaki said "The loss tells me that I don't deserve to be an Olympic champion." Susaki had previously said it was her goal to win four consecutive Olympic gold medals, to equal legendary compatriot Kaori Icho Also on Tuesday, fellow Japanese Nonoka Ozaki reached the bronze-medal match in the women's 68-kg category with a 6-0 victory over Mongolia's Delgermaa Enkhsaikhan in the repechage round Author: Jim Armstrong The author is a longtime journalist who has covered sports in Japan for over 25 years. You can find his articles on SportsLook You must be logged in to post a comment ' + scriptOptions._localizedStrings.webview_notification_text + ' " + scriptOptions._localizedStrings.redirect_overlay_title + " " + scriptOptions._localizedStrings.redirect_overlay_text + " PARIS — Yui Susaki peered up at the top of the white tent above her Tuesday morning perhaps trying to avoid eye contact with the pack of Japanese journalists surrounding her as she fought back tears outside Champ de Mars Arena.  International wrestling’s most dominant force had never been in this position All she’d ever known on the sport’s biggest stage is triumph and titles — until Tuesday the 25-year-old Japanese phenom didn’t allow a point at the World Championships or Olympic Games She entered competition Tuesday with a pristine 82-0 international mark and a 21-0 record at international wrestling’s two most prestigious tournaments.  For nearly six minutes in the opening round at 50 kilograms it appeared Susaki might dodge her first international defeat and survive an opening-round scare against India’s Vinesh Phogat Phogat ran through Susaki in the closing seconds for the winning score in a 3-2 upset that rocked the sport and turned the women’s freestyle 50-kilogram bracket on its top.  two international mainstays who went through sacrifices and struggles to make 50 kilograms and thrive at the lightest weight class emerged as the Olympic finalists.  Phogat and Indiana native Sarah Hildebrandt navigated their way through the bracket to secure medals and a ticket to Wednesday night’s title bout.  Hildebrandt stifled her three opponents Tuesday with opportunistic offense and sticky defense She scored an early takedown and laced up Algeria’s Ibtissem Doudou in a 10-0 opening-round victory She outlasted 2023 World bronze medalist Ziqi Feng of China 7-4 to win a back-and-forth quarterfinal bout Hildebrandt locked down Mongolia’s Otgonjargal Dolgorjav wiggling out of a pair of attacks to win a 5-0 decision avenging a loss from last year’s World semifinals It was Hildebrandt’s ability to “stay in the moment” that impressed USA Wrestling women’s freestyle coach Terry Steiner most Tuesday.  just staying in the moment and being present on the mat,” Steiner said “That’s the one thing she’s really worked on — just staying focused right in the moment where she can do something about it It could’ve been easy for Hildebrandt and the rest of the 50-kilogram contestants to take their eye off the target after Phogat’s seismic upset rattled the bracket Susaki’s defeat was the biggest headline Tuesday on The Japan News.  The loss tells me that I don't deserve to be an Olympic champion Susaki entered Paris as the biggest betting favorite across all three wrestling styles one sports wagering outlet had Phogat as an 80-to-1 shot to win gold before the tournament.  Her path just to get to Paris is perhaps even more improbable.  Phogat led protests against the former head of the Wrestling Federation of India, who was accused of sexually harrassment and intimidation. ESPN India chronicled Phogat’s challenges during the past two years as she “slept on New Delhi's pavements for 40 days nearly immersed all her medals in the Ganga river and underwent knee surgery.” Get the most important Wrestling stories delivered straight to your inbox Today's print edition Home Delivery who had won 24 international tournaments in a row and was undefeated in her 94 matches against foreign wrestlers suffered a shock defeat Tuesday in the first round of the women’s 50-kg freestyle wrestling event at the Paris Games her eyes fixated on the mat.googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1499653692894-0'); }); In a time of both misinformation and too much information quality journalism is more crucial than ever.By subscribing Your subscription plan doesn't allow commenting. To learn more see our FAQ Sponsored contents planned and edited by JT Media Enterprise Division Vinesh Phogat is in the semifinal of the 50kg wrestling event at the Paris Olympics with two wins - including a stunning upset of the reigning Olympic champion - inside two hours put up a brilliant attacking performance to defeat Ukraine's Oksana Livach 7-5 INDIA'S OLYMPIC MEDAL TALLY | INDIA AT PARIS OLYMPICS | LATEST OLYMPIC NEWS | KEY DATES AT PARIS 2024 Vinesh dominated the quarterfinal with her effective takedowns and was the better wrestler for most part of the bout She had a couple of good chances to close out the contest but Oksana held on The Ukrainian turned aggressor in the final 45 seconds and did well to reduce the deficit but Vinesh pulled off four points in 20 seconds to close out on a massive win Vinesh Phogat celebrates after beating defending champion Yui Susaki in her opening bout at Paris Olympics LUIS ROBAYO/AFP via Getty ImagesVinesh will face Pan American champion Guzman Lopez for a spot in the final Her quarter-final will be later on Tuesday afternoon and her semifinal She walked into the bout against with a more serious expression on her face and sporting a new hairdo What she did over the next six minutes was to close out the biggest deal of her life Susaki attempted a takedown on her right leg Vinesh didn't initiate any attacks herself and was penalized for it as Susaki was awarded a passivity point She evaded whatever Susaki did and gave away little to nothing but you could sense Vinesh was holding off turned Susaki around and forced her onto the mat The referee raised his hand to signal two points but Vinesh needed to maintain the hold so that Susaki would not have a chance to attack The remaining five seconds felt like a lifetime Coach Woller Alkos was screaming his lungs out partly celebrating and partly asking Vinesh to maintain the hold as Susaki desperately wriggled underneath Vinesh When those five seconds finally lapsed and the hooter went off She slammed the mat before falling onto her back and letting out a scream Vinesh Phogat takes down defending champion Yui Susaki in her opening bout at Paris Olympics LUIS ROBAYO/AFP via Getty ImagesSusaki challenged the takedown but the judges ruled against her and awarded Vinesh an extra point Vinesh ran towards Alkos and jumped into his arms There are more bouts to go but whatever happens today was the day Vinesh sent the world - all her opponent all her doubters - a message: Write me off at your peril celebrates after defeating Japan’s Yui Susaki in the round of 16 of the women’s freestyle 50kg wrestling match NOT VINESH VINESH - Japan’s Yui Susaki and India’s Vinesh Phogat compete in the round of 16 of the women’s freestyle 50kg wrestling match the seemingly unbeatable top seed in Paris won the gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics three years ago without conceding a point She won her quarterfinal match against Ukraine’s Oksana Livach 7-5 then won her semifinal against Cuba’s Yusneylis Guzman Lopez 5-0 to become the first Indian woman to reach an Olympic final Phogat will wrestle American Sarah Hildebrandt for the gold medal on Wednesday Hildebrandt defeated Mongolia’s Otgonjargal Dolgorjav 5-0 in the other semifinal She tore an anterior cruciate ligament during her Olympic quarterfinal in 2016 and was taken out on a stretcher She had never placed higher than ninth at the Olympics or third at a world championship event Susaki has a chance to fight for a bronze medal through repechage The Olympic gold medal in the 50-kilogram division of women's freestyle wrestling was Yui Susaki's to lose in Paris The 25-year-old out of Japan entered the event a five-time world champion with an 82-0 record on the international stage Susaki won gold during the 2020 Olympics by defeating her opponents by a combined score of 41-0 yet her insane run came to an end during her first-round bout on Tuesday India's Vinesh Phogat pulled off the stunning comeback victory against the Susaki by a score of 3-2 despite trailing 2-0 with time very much not on her side Phogat isn't a nobody in the sport having won bronze in the world championships twice in her career but her win over Susaki was the stunner of all stunners Phogat managed a two-point takedown with just 10 seconds remaining to knot things up To put into perspective just how grand an upset this was, Susaki entered the match having never lost to a non-Japanese opponent. According to ESPN India Susaki had lost a grand total of three times in her entire life dating back to 2010 when she was only a fifth grader Three losses in a span of more than 10 years for Susaki yet Phogat was able to pull off the unthinkable on the biggest stage the sport has to offer Phogat has become a well-known figure in India and around the world having been among the leaders in protest against former Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh Herself and two other top wrestlers accused Singh of sexually harassing women wrestlers many wrestlers were detained while marching towards the Parliament Bajrang Punia, an Olympic medalist out of India himself, posted on X after Phogat's victory to put things into perspective.  "Vinesh Phogat is the lioness of India who won back to back matches today. Defeated 4-time World Champion and defending Olympic champion. After that he defeated the former World Champion in the quarterfinals. But let me tell you one thing, This girl was kicked and crushed in her own country." "This girl was dragged on the streets in her country This girl is going to conquer the world but she lost to the system in this country." You are agreeing to OutKick's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy DISCLAIMER: This site is 100% for entertainment purposes only and does not involve real money betting. Gambling related content is not intended for anyone under the age of 21. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-GAMBLER Japanese wrestler Yui Susaki on Tuesday joined her judoka countrywoman Uta Abe as a favorite who took a shock early-round loss at the Paris Games demonstrating that not even the most dominant athletes can take anything for granted at the Olympics After going undefeated in 94 matches against opponents from other countries since her international debut in 2014 Susaki lost to India's Vinesh Vinesh in the women's 50-kilogram first round trailing 2-0 against the world's top-ranked wrestler and needing a miracle with the clock ticking got a takedown near the edge of the mat at Champ-de-Mars Arena a venue located in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower "I didn't know if that was real," a teary-eyed Susaki told reporters Although I didn't know exactly how she would wrestle I prepared well and had fight plans against her." "I've been wrestling with the support of my family I feel so sorry that all of everyone's time and efforts were wasted because of me." Susaki dominated the field and did not concede a single point en route to the gold medal According to the Japan Wrestling Federation The loss tells me that I don't deserve to be an Olympic champion," Susaki said "I devoted myself to wrestling but couldn't become an Olympic champion I'll look back and try to find what I'm missing and then I will train hard to become a champion again someday." Uta Abe lost in the women's judo 52-kilogram round of 16 ending her bid to win gold medals on the same day as her older brother Hifumi as they did at the pandemic-hit Tokyo Olympics in 2021 The way both women reacted to their losses takes the parallels further "Competing at the Olympics made me rediscover that this is an unbelievable stage," Abe said "I want to bounce back with real strength that enables me to win gold on the biggest stage again." now both the highly decorated sportswomen will need to decide how to write their respective redemption stories Olympics: Tokyo gold medalist Susaki falls in wrestling 1st round Olympics: Judoka Uta Abe vows to bounce back from Paris devastation Olympics: Japanese delegation warns against defamatory online posts Olympics: Hifumi Abe calls for fans to be kind, expects judo rule changes watch live in IndiaYui Susaki has won her three matches at Tokyo 2020 by technical superiority Sun Yanan is a bronze medallist from Rio 2016 Yui Susaki, one of Japan’s flag bearers at the opening ceremony, is a two-time world champion. She has an enviable record at the international stage, so far losing just three matches in her senior career, which began in 2017. At Tokyo 2020, the 22-year-old Yui Susaki made her way into the gold medal bout by winning all three of her matches -- round of 16, quarters and semi-finals -- by technical superiority (win awarded to the wrestler who manages to open a difference of 10 points over the opponent). is a bronze medal winner from Rio 2016 in the 48kg and a three-time world championships medallist The Chinese wrestler was world champion in 2013 in the 51kg category is known for her ability to make big comebacks Even in her semi-final against the reigning world champion Sun Yanan affected takedowns in the last minute to seal her place in the final The afternoon session starts at 2:45 PM IST Mariya Stadnik (AZE) vs Winner of repechage 1 Sarah Ann Hildebrandt (USA) vs Winner of repechage 2 Watch Yui Susaki vs Sun Yanan women’s 50kg wrestling final at the Tokyo Olympics live on Sony TEN 2 Sony SIX and Sony SIX HD TV channels in India Sony TEN 4 and Sony TEN 4 HD will broadcast Tokyo 2020 in regional languages Nao Kusaka won Japan's second Greco-Roman wrestling gold medal in as many days at the Paris Games when he beat Demeu Zhadrayev of Kazakhstan 5-2 in the men's 77-kilogram final on Wednesday who finished third at the 2023 world championships joined countryman Kenichiro Fumita in winning gold in the sport at the 2024 Olympics "It feels like I'm in a dream," Kusaka said Kusaka trailed 2-0 at the end of the first period at the Champ-de-Mars Arena after stepping out once and conceding a further point for passivity He turned the bout around soon after the interval with a take-down of Zhadrayev who desperately maneuvered to avoid being pinned The native of Kagawa Prefecture in Shikoku delighted fans by back-flipping across the mat in celebration I've come through lots of tough moments since I was little all for this and I'm happy to have won," he said "My aspiration toward the Olympics has been my biggest motivation." Fumita broke a 40-year gold-medal drought for Japan in Olympic Greco-Roman wrestling with his victory over China's Cao Liguo on Tuesday Yui Susaki concluded her roller-coaster Paris Olympics by winning women's 50-kg bronze with a technical superiority victory over Ukraine's Oksana Livach The Tokyo Olympic champion had seemingly been knocked out of medal contention with a shock loss to India's Vinesh Vinesh in her opening bout Her repechage clash with Livach was subsequently upgraded to a bronze-medal match after Vinesh failed to make weight for the final Susaki dominated from the outset against Livach who was saved by the bell at the end of the first period but took the technical fall 3 minutes "People around me gave me the supportive push and got me back on my feet (after the loss)," Susaki said I'll give my all for the next four years so they can see me become the Olympic champion again." American Sarah Hildebrandt won the women's 50-kg gold against Cuba's Yusneylis Guzman Lopez who lost to Vinesh in the semifinals before replacing the disqualified wrestler in the gold medal contest Japan's Akari Fujinami earlier booked her place in the women's 53-kilogram wrestling final by defeating China's Pang Qianyu who has not lost an official match since high school earned victory by technical superiority 4:40 into the semifinal The two-time world champion led 6-0 at the end of the first period and picked up where she left off with a takedown straight after the break "I've been working to be the Olympic champion and I'll be giving my all to win at any cost and bring the gold medal back home," Fujinami said Fujinami will battle Ecuador's Lucia Yepez Guzman for the gold medal on Thursday Yepez Guzman guaranteed her country's first medal in any form of wrestling by beating Germany's Annika Wendle in their semifinal Olympics: Japan's Fumita strikes 60-kg Greco-Roman wrestling gold Olympics: Shock losers Susaki, Abe to walk similar redemption roads Susaki City’s Gotouchi Character Festival is returning for its 9th year This massive festival in Kochi Prefecture is one of Japan’s biggest events celebrating mascots Notable guests include Chiba-kun from Chiba Gunma-chan from Gunma and Funassyi from Funabashi The star and host of the event is Susaki’s own The weekend-long festival will start with an opening ceremony followed by various performances and greetings by the mascots also known as “Yuffie,” will make an appearance for a musical performance with various characters Kochi’s leading yosakoi dance team Honiya and their Honiyakko children’s division will also be performing their brilliant choreography with a mix of modern and retro costumes Booths and food trucks will be selling local foods from Kochi PARIS (July 23) -- Yui SUSAKI (JPN) and Artur ALEKSANYAN (ARM) are at different stages in their storied careers as they both head to Paris with the aim of winning a second Olympic gold medal is one of the biggest stars of the generation now in its prime having four world titles at women's 50kg to go with the gold she won at the Tokyo Olympics The endearing dynamo has still never lost to a non-Japanese opponent in nearly 100 matches PARIS 2024 SCHEDULE | PARIS 2024 NEWS The 32-year-old Aleksanyan could be regarded as being on the tail end of a career that includes an Olympic medal of every color He remains the face of the Greco 97kg weight class The two will command the spotlight when those divisions begin action on Day 2 at the Paris Games along with Greco 77kg in which an unheralded compatriot of Susaki's has suddenly emerged as a gold-medal contender is not something that comes easily," Susaki said in an interview with Japanese media in April after returning from a tougher-than-expected title run at the Asian Championships in Bishkek "It makes me again aware that [wrestling] is a tough world How I spend the next three months will decide what happens in three months I will prepare so that I can win a wonderful gold and leave with a smile." Four-time medalist Mariya STADNIK (AZE) will wrestle at her fifth Olympics (Photo: United World Wrestling / Kadir Caliskan) While Susaki will enter as the overwhelming favorite to flash her pearly whites on top of the medal podium, sentiment will be on the side of veteran Mariya STADNIK (AZE), the 35-year-old mother of two who is a good bet to make history by winning an unprecedented fifth Olympic medal Can this one finally be a gold for Stadnik That would likely entail having to pull off a major upset of Susaki an opponent she has not beaten in three career meetings most recently in the semifinals at the Tokyo Olympics Aleksanyan would have been going to Paris as a five-time world champion had he not been dealt a stunning last-second defeat in the final at last year's World Championships in Belgrade by Gabriel ROSILLO (CUB) Look for the Armenian to avoid any more mistakes like that Nao KUSAKA (JPN) is a strong gold medal favorite in Paris At Greco 77kg, top seed Nao KUSAKA (JPN) seems to be peaking at just the right time after winning a surprising bronze medal in Belgrade, which he followed up by stunning two-time reigning world champion and Tokyo Olympic silver medalist Akzhol MAKHUMUDOV (KGZ) before the latter's home crowd at the Asian Championships will look to bounce back and become Kyrgyzstan's first-ever Olympic champion -- assuming compatriot Zholaman SHARSHENBEKOV (KGZ) doesn't beat him to it at Greco 60kg When a longtime champion is dealt a rare defeat "It may be the best thing that could have happened," because they become less complacent and more determined They go back to the basics and come back even stronger That's the experience that Susaki went through at the Asian Championships except that it didn't entail actually losing Just having fallen behind in a match for the first time in who knows how long was enough of a wake-up call in her declared quest to eventually win four Olympic gold medals In the final against Ziqi FENG (CHN) Susaki got stopped on an attempted front headlock roll to put her behind 4-2 From her gold-medal run at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics to that point Susaki had given up a total of only 11 points in 41 matches she managed to come back and win the match and the gold 8-4 That gave her three wins in three career meetings with Feng who will be in Paris after winning a world bronze in 2023 Susaki would say that while happy with the victory but far from satisfied with the performance it made her aware of issues that she needed to address "I think that more of my opponents will use the strategy of trying to keep the score low and have the match come down to the last 30 seconds," Susaki said "I want to practice so that my wrestling will get me past that type of opponent." Susaki said she is not concerned that opponents are studying her every move I have to look into myself and to be assured of winning the gold in Paris I have to set a straightforward goal and advance toward it." Since her first international tournament -- the 2014 Klippan Lady, in the cadet division -- Susaki has compiled a 94-0 record against non-Japanese foes while piling up 24 consecutive tournament titles. In fact, she has lost only three times in her entire career dating back to junior high school, all of which came at the hands of the same opponent, compatriot Yuki IRIE (JPN) Stadnik showed she could still hold her own on the world stage by capturing a third straight European title in February She was dealt a surprising loss by Oksana LIVACH (UKR) at the European Olympic Qualifier but earned her ticket to Paris at the World Qualifier although that venture included a defeat by 2023 Asian Games silver medalist Son Hyang KIM (PRK) The most intriguing entry is Vinesh PHOGAT (IND), whose path to Paris was filled with pain and adversity. For years a top competitor at 53kg, she was forced by circumstances to drop down to 50kg for the first time since 2018 in a desperate bid to win an elusive medal at her third Olympic Games her conflict with the Indian federation over accusations of sexual harassment by its president and a subsequent public protest with other top wrestlers drew vilification from within and without the federation she suffered a severe knee injury in August 2023 that required surgery Vinesh was just able to recover in time for the Olympic qualifiers but the 53kg slot had already been filled by world bronze medalist ANTIM (IND) She decided to take the extreme route of moving down to 50kg where she prevailed at the Asian Qualifier "I have fought two battles -- one regarding weight cut and the other is the competition,” Vinesh told UWW after winning the quota from the Asian Olympic Qualifiers in Bishkek "Many people had suggested not to take part at 50kg because it might lead to an injury relapse the desire to become India's second female wrestling medalist has been a powerful driving force "The focus will be on trying my best," she said "I’ve been doing this for 20 years and the hopes of winning an Olympic medal keeps me going it seems like all the struggles were worth it." Others with viable medal ambitions are Tokyo Olympic bronze medalist and three-time world medalist Sarah HILDEBRANDT (USA) two-time world silver medalist Otgonjargal DOLGORJAV (MGL) and world bronze medalist Anastasia BLAYVAS (GER) Gabriel ROSILLO (CUB) scored a late takedown to beat Artur ALEKSANYAN (ARM) at the World Championships (Photo: United World Wrestling / Kostadin Andonov) GR 97kg: Aleksanyan looks to go out in blaze of glory It wasn't the food that left a bad taste in Aleksanyan's mouth when he left Tokyo with a silver medal The combination of being visibly hampered by a leg injury and giving up a 2-point penalty that he is still not convinced about made it hard to swallow a 5-1 loss in the final to Musa EVLOEV (ROC) I tell everyone that I did not touch my opponent's leg with my hand There is no one in the world who would show me that I touched his leg with my hand That has motivated him to make sure nothing goes wrong as he attempts to add a second gold to the one he captured at the 2016 Rio Olympics what path I am going through now and how I will go to the end to achieve my goal," he said Aleksanyan will also have to avoid letting down his guard as he did in the final at last year's World Championships in Belgrade where he lost to unheralded Gabriel ROSILLO (CUB) 3-3 on last-point criteria after giving up an arm-drag takedown with 21 seconds left Paris could mark the end of an illustrious career that includes an Olympic bronze from London 2012 and four world titles "I'm thinking to end my career after the Games but I still can't imagine myself without wrestling," he said I am striving to end my career with a victory Rosillo will be on hand to try to prevent that but Aleksanyan's main competition is expected to come from Mohammadhadi SARAVI (IRI) a bronze medalist at the Tokyo Olympics and a former world champion most recently in the semifinals at the 2022 World Championships with Aleksanyan winning all three by decisions A post shared by Olympic Wrestling (@unitedworldwrestling) Also in the medal hunt will be world bronze medalist Artur OMAROV (CZE) five-time Asian medalist Uzur DZHUZUPBEKOV (KGZ) who has a pair of eighth-place Olympic finishes on his long resume asked how he would like to be remembered after he retires But I would like the next generations to strive to surpass these results.. and what I like most about this sport is the sense of kinship that is present both in our generation and among our elders." A post shared by Olympic Wrestling (@unitedworldwrestling) GR 77kg: 'Ordinary' Kusaka aims for extraordinary achievement It was quite a proud and unexpected moment for host Japan when Shohei YABIKU (JPN) won a Greco 77kg bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics that few if any had foreseen It was just as surprising that within two years he would no longer even be the best in the country due to the rapid rise of Kusaka like Yabiku a product of powerhouse Nippon Sports Science University added two strong results at UWW Ranking Series tournaments -- a third place at the Zagreb Open and a gold in Budapest -- to his Asian title to secure the top seed in Paris It's been quite a whirlwind ride for the 23-year-old who credits his new-found success to going the extra mile in training "I'm just an ordinary person," he said in an interview with broadcaster NHK Takamatsu in his hometown in western Japan He started wrestling at age 3 but never really stood out until he got to high school where he blossomed under the tutelage of a coach who instilled words of wisdom that he lives by to this day 'Effort will always surpass talent,'" he said "He would always say that giving your all in practice is a given If you don't give extra in all the other things you will never become stronger than the others." Among the "extra" things Kusaka does is stay behind after practice to work out on his own and cook for himself to ensure proper nutrition He also boldly ventured to Germany -- and on his own dime -- for a month of intense training late last year He competed in the Bundesliga and traveled to Hungary where he practiced with Tokyo Olympic champion Tamas LORINCZ (HUN) and 2022 world silver medalist Zoltan LEVAI (HUN) is among the 15 others in the Paris field who will be aiming for the gold themselves he will not be able to face Kusaka except in the final A post shared by Olympic Wrestling (@unitedworldwrestling) and looks headed for a semifinal encounter with No the Zagreb Open champion and 2021 world silver medalist He added that he expects to have a "minimum of four" Olympic medals before he retires which means he will need to start the collection in Paris Others worth watching will be three-time European champion Malkhas AMOYAN (ARM) former Asian champion Amin KAVIYANINEJAD (IRI) and four-time Asian medalist Demeu ZHADRAYEV (KAZ) Below are previews for every weight in the women's freestyle division at the 2024 Olympics American Sarah Hildebrandt has five World/Olympic medals but wants something more The 2020 Olympic bronze medalist is seeking gold in 2024 Hildebrandt is in the 50 kg field and fans can watch her compete at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games on August 6-7 on NBC or Peacock Wrestling takes place at Grand Palais Éphémère in Champ de Mars FloWrestling will have on-the-ground coverage and a live watch party during the Olympic wrestling competition The safe money is that Japan’s Yui Susaki will win her second consecutive Olympic gold medal and sixth World/Olympic title The 24-year-old has only given up nine points in 21 matches and didn’t surrender any at three World-level Championships Her dynamic takedown attacks are matched only by her ability to secure a turn and end bouts early Susaki has won all of her World/Olympic finals by tech and can make elite-level wrestlers look pedestrian.  But Susaki can get beat if she’s not at the top of her game.  Winning the 2020 Tokyo Olympics took fortunate timing Susaki won the 2017 and 2018 Worlds but Yuki Irie represented Japan in 2019 Irie has three wins over her domestic rival and is the only wrestler to defeat Susaki since 2010.  Irie would represent Japan at the Olympics if she won a medal at the 2019 World Championships but those plans were derailed when she lost to China’s Yanan Sun in a wild 13-12 quarterfinal match Sun lost to eventual champion Mariya Stadnik of Azerbaijan in the semifinals leaving Irie out of medal contention.  That opened the door for Susaki who took advantage by winning a special wrestle-off over Irie The 2020 Olympic Games were postponed until 2021 but Susaki dominated the competition in front of her home crowd Sun gave Susaki an Olympic opportunity and Susaki opted out of the 2021 World Championships a few weeks later but her replacement Any points scored against Susaki are newsworthy given her dominant career That’s why her performance at the recent Asian Championships offers a sliver of hope for the rest of the world She won three matches for the title but had a 4-1 win over Yong Ok Hwang of North Korea in the quarters and an 8-4 win over China’s Ziqi Feng in the finals Feng won a bronze medal at the 2023 Worlds Sarah Hildebrandt’s dynamic wrestling style and sparkling personality make her a superstar but she’s tired of winning silver and bronze medals Hildebrandt fell to Mongolia’s Otgonjargal Dolgorjavyn at back-to-back World Championships before bouncing back for bronze in the semis then teched Ukraine’s Oksana Livach for bronze.  “I’ve done this now a lot of times,” Hildebrandt said after her 2023 World bronze medal match “There’s a certain point (where you ask) how much more do I have to be resilient and when can I start being good I feel like I’m getting way too comfortable being the resilient one who has to pick herself back up.” She hasn’t lost a match to an American since dropping from 53 to 50 kg after the 2019 World Championships Her high-octane pace and world-class leg lace make her a favorite to reach the podium again Hildebrandt is the only wrestler at the weight to medal at the 2020 Olympics and every subsequent World Championships.  She's never faced Susaki so an Olympic final between these two is a match the world wants to see Already a subscriber? Log In Hildebrandt used her leg lace to end a match early at the 2023 Pan-American Championships China’s Ziqi Feng won a bronze medal at the 2023 World Championships and was ahead of Susaki but this is encouraging news for the rest of the weight since points have been nearly impossible to score against the Japanese star Mongolia’s Dolgorjavyn Otgonjargal is a medal favorite after reaching the 2022 and 2023 World finals Her compact frame makes her a problem since changing levels and getting to her legs can be difficult The sentimental favorite is Mariya Stadnik of Azerbaijan who recently made her fifth Olympic team The 35-year-old is a four-time Olympic medalist winning silvers in 2012 and 2016 and bronzes in 2008 and 2020 Her impressive career includes six Senior World medals (two gold and it took winning the true bronze medal match at the World Olympic qualifier to make it happen She skipped the 2021 and 2022 World Championships and finished eighth in 2023 The 50 kg field is deep so a medal for Stadnik would add to her legacy Keep an eye on North Korea’s Song-hyang Kim North Korea is conspicuously absent during World-level events then appear when it matters most Kim won a bronze medal at the 2017 World Championships (dropping a 5-2 match to Susaki) disappeared for four years after the 2019 Worlds and then reappeared at the 2023 Asian Games where she finished second to Japan’s Remina Yoshimoto.  Kim nearly scored the winning takedown against Susaki at the buzzer but time ran out Kim entered the World Olympic qualifier and reached the finals with a late 10-3 win over Stadnik The North Korean gave Susaki a tough match at the 2017 Worlds so she could be a threat at the Olympics.  India’s Vinesh Phogat dropped from 53 kilograms to make her third Olympic Team She won World bronze medals in 2019 and 2022 but caused a stir when she entered two weights — 50 and 53 — at her country’s trials process in March.  Phogat reached the finals of this year’s Asian Olympic qualifier at 50 kg after five years at 53 Her last time at this weight was during the 2018 Asian Games where she defeated Japan’s Yuki Irie — the same opponent with three wins over Susaki — in the gold medal finals.  These women's freestyle wrestlers qualified their countries for the 2024 Olympic Games WorldsGold - Yui Susaki (JPN)Silver - Dolgorjavyn Otgonjargal (MGL)Bronze - Ziqi Feng (CHN)Bronze - Sarah Hildebrandt (USA)5th Place - Evin Demirhan (TUR) Continentals QualifiersPan-Ams - Alisson Cardozo (COL)Pam-Ams - Yusneylis Guzman (CUB)African & Oceania - Nada Mohamed (EGY)African & Oceania - Ibtissem Doudou (ALG)Euros - Oksana Livach (UKR)Euros - Nadezhda Sokolova (RUS)Asians - Aktenge Keunimjaeva (UZB)Asians - Vinesh Phogat (IND) Last Chance World QualifierSong Hyang Kim (PRK)Anastasia Blayvas (GER)Mariya Stadnik (AZE) American Dom Parrish was a World champion in 2022 but missed out on a medal last year She attempts to reach the podium during her first Olympic Games.  Parrish is in the 53 kg field and fans can watch her compete at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games on August 7-8 on NBC or Peacock Here's what to know about the 53 kg field.  A healthy Akari Fujinami might be the best pound-for-pound wrestler in the world The 20-year-old Japanese star won her first senior world title in 2021 at 17 and another in 2023 at 19 She missed the 2022 World Championships due to an injury.  Her other-worldly low-level attacks are a sight to behold Her opponent’s leg looks firmly planted in cement as she misdirects to the side for a takedown Nine matches at the Senior World Championships have resulted in eight shutout techs and one fall the win by fall offers the most insight into defeating Fujinami.  Ecuador’s Lucia Yepez Guzman raced to an early lead during her quarterfinal match against Fujinami at the 2023 World Championships Yepez used a slingshot double to blast Fujinami off her feet and score seven points but it was the first time anyone scored on Fujinami at the World Championships.  It will take more than a four-point takedown to knock off Fujinami It takes a complete match and a well-executed game plan Dom Parrish had her breakout performance at the 2022 World Championships Her first international gold medal was on the biggest stage setting the stage to make this year’s Olympic Team native made the 2023 World team but lost 3-2 in the opening round to India’s Antim Panghal Parrish qualified the United States for the Olympics at the 2024 Pan-American Qualifier with an entertaining 9-6 win over 2020 Olympian Laura Herin of Cuba She followed that with two wins over 2016 Olympian Haley Augello in the best-of-three Olympic Trials finals to make the Olympic Team “Anyone who has been in the flow state knows you’re going to win,” Parrish said after defeating Herin “I didn’t know how it was going to happen but I knew it was going to happen I felt tingling through my whole body warming up so I felt so ready going out to wrestle and give it my all Her quarterfinal match against Guzman at the 2022 Worlds was Parrish at her best and secured an air-tight leg-lace for a 10-0 first-period tech She won 3-1 in the semis over three-time World bronze medalist Maria Prevolarki of Greece before a 4-2 win over Batkhuyagiin Khulan of Mongolia in the finals.  The 27-year-old has developed into a star since dropping from 55 kg in 2020 Her colorful personality and entertaining interviews enhance her accomplishments on the mat.  but Parrish has what it takes to reach the podium Watch Dom Parrish's win over Cuba's Laura Herin to qualify the United States for the Olympics at 53 kg Guzman is the only wrestler in the field to score on Fujinami at the World Championships so she is at the top of the contenders' list Her explosive style makes her a can’t-miss wrestler and she seems to improve every time she competes.  The 23-year-old flipped a 14-4 loss to Prevolarki in the 2022 World bronze medal match into a 10-3 win over her for bronze the following year Guzman has a big upside and should be a factor at the Olympics and beyond Vanesa Kaladzinskaya of Belarus has the best credentials The 31-year-old wasn’t afraid to mix it up with Fujinami during her World finals match She eventually gave up a 10-0 tech but didn’t get turned and made Fujinami work to get takedowns.  India’s Antim Panghal is a two-time U20 World champion who secured a senior-level bronze last year Parrish hit her with a straight-on single during the first 10 seconds of their match China’s Qianyu Pang had a good run from 2018 through 2021 winning two World bronze medals and a silver at the 2020 Olympics Keep an eye on Moldova’s Mariana Dragutan (2023 World bronze at 55 kg) and Mongolia’s Batkhuyag Khulan (2022 World silver at 53 kg) North Korea’s Hyogyong Choe hasn’t competed from 2010 until she won a bronze medal at the 2023 Asian Games.  Sweden’s Emma Malmgren might be the breakout surprise at this weight and high pace could frustrate some of her opponents The 22-year-old is a 2021 Junior World champion and a two-time European champion who won her fifth-place match at the 2023 World Championships to qualify for the Olympics Here’s one more: Andreea Ana of Romania was the 2021 U23 World champion at 55 kg when she was 19 and she has three European titles and three medals.  WorldsGold - Akari Fujinami (JPN)Silver - Vanesa Kaladzinskaya (BLR)Bronze - Lucia Yepez Guzman (ECU)Bronze - Antim Panghal (IND)5th Place - Emma Malmgren (SWE) Continentals QualifiersPan-Ams - Dominique Parrish (USA)Pam-Ams - Betzabeth Arguello (VEN)African & Oceania - Mia Aquino (GUA)African & Oceania - Christiana Ogunsanya (NGR)Euros - Natalia Malysheva (RUS)Euros - Andreea Ana (ROU)Asians - Qianyu Pang (CHN)Asians - Hyogyong Choe (PRK) Last Chance World QualifierMariana Dragutan (MDA)Batkhuyag Khulan (MGL)Zeynep Yetgil (TUR) American Helen Maroulis has gold on her mind in a tough weight class this summer Maroulis is in the 57 kg field and fans can watch her compete at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games on August 8-9 on NBC or Peacock Here's what to know about the 57 kg field.  Japan’s Tsugumi Sakurai is the favorite based on results but she is hardly a lock to win the Olympic Games won two Olympic gold medals and three World titles in weights ranging from 57 to 63 kg Sakurai represents the next wave of Japanese superstars and she already has three World titles by age 22.  The Japanese star is a control wrestler who doesn’t force scoring opportunities and can dominate without scoring lots of points She is different than her world-champion teammates Yui Susaki (50 kg) and Akari Fujinami (53 kg) who end matches early Sakurai will stay patient and frustrate opponents with constant pressure Her 2023 World Championship finals against Moldova’s Anastasia Nichita is how Sakurai wrestles and eventually scored a second-period takedown off a two-on-one but gave up a late takedown when she wrestled from space The best way to defeat Sakurai is to create space or to control the tie in the finals of the 2024 Asian Championships and provided the playbook for wrestling the three-time World champion That forced Sakurai to chase for the remainder of the match Feng gave up a late takedown when the match was secured.Watch Sakurai's 2023 World Championship finals match below Helen Maroulis continues to write the record book in the United States The 32-year-old has competed in 11 Senior World Championships becoming the first American woman to make three Olympic teams she became the first American to win an Olympic gold medal in women’s freestyle wrestling and in 2021 was the first to win multiple medals when she secured bronze.  There’s a good chance she’ll earn her 10th Senior World medal in what will likely be the final competition of her career.  Every tournament is different,” Maroulis said after the 2023 World Championships “Every single (World Championships) is special it’s almost like I can count the number of tournaments I have left I’m not doing anything else unless it contributes in some way to that 2024 goal.  “All these nerves and this weight cut and sitting in a hotel room — you get this three more times It’s been 25 years that you’ve been doing this It puts a lot of things into perspective for me.”  Putting Maroulis’ wrestling career takes more than a numerical evaluation but her accomplishments transcend wrestling Winning the 2016 Olympics over 16-time World and Olympic champion Saori Yoshida of Japan catapulted her into superstardom She became the face of women’s wrestling and her public battles with concussions and PTSD have only added to her fascinating journey.  Maroulis is a cerebral wrestler who excels at match strategy She may drop a match or two during the season but makes adjustments for the events that matter the most Her performance at the 2017 World Championships was Maroulis at her best She outscored five opponents 52-0 using a diverse range of offensive and defensive techniques.  but Maroulis is in the mix to win a third Olympic medal.  and 2023 World Championships but won bronze medals at the 2019 and 2021 U23 World Championships She qualified for the Olympics by winning the Canadian Olympic Trials and reaching the finals of the Pan-Am Olympic Qualifier.  Taylor is a right-leg lead who digs underhooks with her left arm Her shots are from space with no set-up and she utilizes step-outs to win matches She’s all about hand-fighting and getting her opponent to the zone The 26-year-old needs the tournament of her life to medal at the Olympics Hannah Taylor dreamed of becoming an Olympian at age six including three U SPORT titles at Brock University.  Moldova’s Anastasia Nichita is at the top of her game after winning the 2022 World Championships at 59 kg and a silver at the 2023 World Championships at 57 Her unorthodox style will be a nightmare for anyone she faces in the bracket She likes to create chaos and typically comes out on top in scrambles She also has an air-tight gut wrench to end matches early Nigeria’s Odunayo Adekuoroye is the tallest wrestler at the weight and presents a unique set of challenges The 30-year-old has won four Senior-level World medals she had a memorable 13-0 win over Maroulis at the 2021 Poland Open Adekuoroye was ahead of Nichita 8-2 in the first round at the 2020 Olympics before getting pinned and eliminated from the tournament when Nichita didn’t reach the finals Nichita won by 10-0 tech in the quarterfinals of the 2023 Worlds.  Kexin Hong qualified China for the Olympics but that doesn’t necessarily mean she will compete at Paris Yongxin Feng defeated Sakurai at the Asian Championships so she would be the top contender if she competes Zhang Qi won the 2023 World Championships and defeated Japan’s Risako Kawai at the Asian Championships Iryna Kurachkina of Belararus won a silver medal at the 2020 Olympics but finished seventh at the 2023 World Championships She qualified through the European Olympic qualifier Poland’s Anhelina Lysak was a bronze medalist at the 2022 World Championships and India’s Anshu Malik won silver in 2021.  WorldsGold - Tsugumi Sakurai (JPN)Silver - Anastasia Nichita (MDA)Bronze - Helen Maroulis (USA)Bronze - Odunayo Adekuoroye (NGR)5th Place - Anhelina Lysak (POL) Continentals QualifiersPan-Ams - Luisa Valverde (ECU)Pam-Ams - Hannah Taylor (CAN)African & Oceania - Rckaela Aquino (GUA)African & Oceania - Chaimaa Aouissi (ALG)Euros - Sandra Parszewski (GER)Euros - Iryna Kurachkina (BLR)Asians - Kexin Hong (CHN)Asians - Anshu Malik (IND) Last Chance World QualifierAlina Akoobia (UKR)Giullia Oliveria (BRA)Aurora Russo (ITA) American Kayla Miracle has one of the most impressive resumes in U.S including two Senior World silver medals.  Miracle is in the 62 kg field and fans can watch her compete at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games on August 9-10 on NBC or Peacock Here's what to know about the 62 kg field.  The time is now for Kyrgyzstan’s Aisuluu Tynybekova The 31-year-old had the best quad of any wrestler at 62 kg since winning a silver medal at the 2020 Olympics and 2023 alongside a 2017 bronze medal.  At least half the field has a legitimate shot at gold.  Tynybekova is a low-volume shooter and a high-percentage finisher She’s willing to stand toe-to-toe with an opponent The Kyrgyz star will capitalize on an errant shot and can create scrambles if someone gets to her legs — and her flexibility can turn a predicament into a scoring opportunity.  Her five-match 2023 World title run explains how Tynybekova wrestles: two falls and 4-1 over Japan’s Sakura Motoki in the finals She defeated Motoki again in this year’s Asian Championship finals but Tynybekova fell to 2022 World champion Nonoka Ozaki of Japan at the 2023 Asian Games.  Watch Aisuluu Tynybekova win the 2023 World Championships Miracle is at the top of her game despite a 14-10 loss to Mongolia’s Orkhon Purevdorj at the recent Budapest Ranking Series tournament Her long and distinguished career includes four WCWA titles for Campbellsville six World medals across multiple age categories She won her first Senior-level medal at the 2021 World Championships The 28-year-old won another silver medal the following year but fell to Romania’s Kriszta Incze in the second round of the 2023 World Championships.  Because she didn’t qualify the weight for the United States at the Worlds Miracle had to take a lengthy path to the Olympics.  She defeated World silver medalist Macey Kilty at the Pan-Am Qualifier wrestle-off for the right to wrestle at the Pan-Am Olympic Qualifier Then she won the Pan-Am Championships for the right to get seeded opposite Brazil’s Lais Nunes and Canada’s Ana Godinez a week before qualifying the weight for the United States Then she defeated Kilty in straight matches at the Olympic Trials it took four tournaments over three months to make the 2024 Paris Olympic Team.  “Everyone is in the same position,” Miracle said after the Pan-Am Olympic qualifier “This position sucks having to qualify here It sucked but everyone is in the same position because it’s not going to be given.”  This match qualified the United States for the Olympic Games at 62 kg Godinez has momentum entering the Olympic Games The Canadian star recently won the Hungarian Ranking Tournament after Ukraine’s Iryna Koliadenko forfeited in the finals The 24-year-old won gold and bronze at the 2021 and 2022 U23 World Championships; respectively but hasn’t broken through with a medal at the Senior Worlds.  The Olympics would be an ideal time to make that happen Godinez was a college star for Simon Fraser but has never defeated her continental rival.  The Canadian star has heavy snaps and likes to score on go-behinds She’s a gritty wrestler who can mount a comeback if she has to Godinez was down 7-0 in her 2021 U23 Word finals match before storming back for a 10-7 victory.  Japan won four of six weights at the 2020 Toyko Olympics — including Yukako Kawai at 62 kg — so it’s hardly a stretch to think it could win here Sakura Motoki lost a tight match to Tynybekova in the 2023 World finals and is expected to represent Japan in Paris.  Ukraine’s Iryna Koliadenko won bronze medals at the 2020 Olympics and 2023 World Championships but didn’t represent her country in 2021 and 2022 Her replacement — Ilona Prokopevniuk — won a bronze medal a testament to the depth of the country.  Norway’s Grace Bullen has ties to the United States winning a 2018 WCWA individual and team title alongside Miracle The two have faced off a few times with each winning notching an 8-6 win over Miracle at the 2023 Zagreb Open and winning a bronze medal at last year’s Worlds.  Bulgaria’s Bilyana Dudova is a 2021 World champion at 59 kg and a 2018 World silver medalist at 57 Mongolia’s Orkhon Purevdorg is a 2017 World champion at 63 kg and has a rare win over Japan's 14-time World/Olympic champion Kaori Icho Germany's Luisa Niemesch hasn't won a Senior medal but she qualified outright at the World Championships by finishing fifth.  The wild card is North Korea’s Hyon Gyong Mun She won the 2023 Asian Games over Ozaki and Tynybekova Could she be the breakout star of this bracket There is plenty of star power to go around in the deepest women’s freestyle field at the 2024 Olympic Games.  WorldsGold - Aisuluu Tynybekova (KGZ)Silver - Sakura Motoki (JPN)Bronze - Iryna Koliadenko (UKR)Bronze - Grace Bullen (NOR)5th Place - Luisa Niemesch (GER) Continentals QualifiersPan-Ams - Kayla Miracle (USA)Pam-Ams - Ana Godinez (CAN)African & Oceania - Siwar Bouseta (TUN)African & Oceania - Esther Kolawole (NGR)Euros - Alina Kasabieva (RUS)Euros - Bilyana Dudova (BUL)Asians - Orkhon Purevdorg (MGL)Asians - Hyon Gyong Mun (PRK) Last Chance World QualifierKrszta Incze (ROU)Nesrin Bas (TUR)Veranika Ivanova (BLR) American Amit Elor is on a path like no other wrestler in U.S The 20-year-old phenom has won eight World Championships: two Senior Elor is in the 68 kg field and fans can watch her compete at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games on August 5-6 on NBC or Peacock Here's what to know about the 68 kg field.  Don’t worry if Amit Elor’s name doesn’t show up as a 68 kg World or Olympic medalist during the last Olympic quad She was too busy dominating the competition at 72 kg.  Elor was off to a fast start in 2021 when she bagged U17 and U20 World titles and Senior World titles in 2022 — becoming the youngest American (18) to win a Senior World title and the first American to win three gold medals (U20 making her the first and only American to accomplish the same feat twice.  and Kristie Davis (2) as the only American women to win multiple World/Olympic titles.  Her last loss was a 3-1 semifinal setback to Japan’s Honoka Naka at the 2019 Cadet Worlds Her closest match was a 3-2 semifinal victory over Japan’s Masako Furuichi at the 2022 Senior World Championships.  "Winning eight World titles means I'm probably doing something right," Elor said "It's hard to believe that I have won that many World titles I just keep going from one competition to the next This weight has belonged to the Americans since 2019 with Mensah-Stock winning World golds in 2019 and 2022 and the 2020 Olympics Her retirement left an opening that Elor will fill in Paris.  Elor qualified the United States at the Pan-Am Olympic Qualifier since her two World titles were at a non-Olympic weight She won the best-of-three series at the Olympic Trials over Forrest Molinari.  native might be the best wrestler in the world from an underhook or a two-on-one She establishes dominance early by imposing her will from the first whistle until the last and punishing style that will be difficult to stop — especially since she is the strongest competitor in the 16-wrestler field.  She missed the 2020 Olympic Trials since her January 1 A gold medal in Paris will compensate for her missed opportunity.  Elor qualified the United States for the Olympics with this win winning the 59 kg gold medal at the 2019 World Championships and bronze in 2016 and 2022 Making the 2024 Olympics wasn’t easy for the 30-year-old native was injured during the 2023 season and postponed her wrestle-off Morais defeated Katie Mulkay for the right to face Di Bacco in the best-of-three series at the Canadian Team Trials The series went to the deciding match with Morais winning matches one and three Next up was the World Olympic Games Qualifier where Morais won her first two matches then won three more to make the Olympic Team with the last available spot often leading to fireman’s carries and throws Morais is selective with her shots but is explosive when she opens up.  This weight is interesting since quality wrestlers are coming up from 65 and down from 72 Morais is definitely in the mix and has the medals to prove it.  Watch Linda Morais win a bronze medal at the 2022 World Championships Turkey’s Buse Tosun won the 2023 World Championships at 68 kilograms She won 72 kg bronze medals at the 2018 and 2021 World Championships Tosun’s World Championship run included three falls She was thrown for four during her finals match against Mongolia’s Delgermaa Enkhsaikhan but immediately reversed the position for the pin That makes her a dangerous match-up for anyone in the field.  Japan’s Ami Ishii qualified the weight for Japan by winning her fifth-place match over Emma Bruntil of the United States but Nonoka Ozaki will compete at 68 kg She won the 2022 and 2023 World Championships at 62 and 65 kg An Ozaki vs Elor match is intriguing with each winning two Senior World titles: one moving up a weight and the other moving down in less than a minute during the 2023 World finals She shoots a sweep single and ends matches early with turns Getting to Elor’s legs and turning her will be among her greatest challenges.  The rest of the field will attempt to play spoiler in a balanced field.  Mongolia’s Delgermaa Enkhsaikhan was a silver medalist at the 2023 Worlds France’s Koumba Larroque is a four-time World medalist with a semifinal win over Mensah-Stock at the 2018 World Championships Moldova’s Irina Ricaci has three Senior World medals including a dramatic bronze medal win over Ishii at the 2023 Worlds.  Two wild cards are Nigeria’s Blessing Oborududu and Feng Zhou Oborududu won a silver medal at the 2020 Olympics but hasn't reached the podium before or since Zhou won World medals in 2015 and 2018 but hasn’t reached that level of success again.  WorldsGold - Buse Tosun (TUR)Silver -  Delgermaa Enkhsaikhan (MGL)Bronze - Koumba Larroque (FRA)Bronze - Irina Ringaci (MDA)5th Place - Ami Ishii (JPN) Continentals QualifiersPan-Ams - Amit Elor (USA)Pam-Ams - Soleymi Caraballo (VEN)African & Oceania - Blessing Oborududu (NGR)African & Oceania - Tayla Ford (NZL)Euros - Khanum Velieva (RUS)Euros - Wiktoria Choluj (POL)Asians - Sol Gum Pak (PRK)Asians - Meerim Zhumanazarova (KGZ) Last Chance World QualifierNisha Dahiya (IND)Feng Zhou (CHN)Linda Morais (CAN) Will American Kennedy Blades be the new international star at 76 kg The 20-year-old made her first Senior-level World team when she knocked off six-time World champion Adeline Gray in the best-of-three finals at the Olympic Trials.  Fans can watch Blades compete at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games on August 10-11 on NBC or Peacock Here's what to know about the 76 kg field.  Japan has dominated the world in women’s freestyle wrestling but is missing one thing: an Olympic gold medal at 76 kg but Japan has never tasted the top Olympic spot in the heaviest weight class Five-time World champion Kyoko Hamaguchi represented Japan three times at the Olympics A gold by Yuka Kagami would put the finishing touches on an unparalleled wrestling legacy.  Kagami is the slight favorite based on winning the 2023 World Championships The 22-year-old is shorter than most of her opponents and has a low-level shot and a double which she used during her win 4-1 over six-time World champion Adeline Gray in last year’s World semis Developing and executing a game plan is Kagami’s greatest strength She doesn’t score often but doesn’t have to since she is so positionally sound Kagami didn’t score a takedown until the second period of her World final which ended by injury default over Kyrgyzstan’s Aiperi Medet Kyzy but this is her first Senior-level World Team The 76 kg domestic field is deep with a handful of wrestlers capable of winning World and Olympic medals.  The 20-year-old ran through the mini-tournament with wins over Skylar Grote (11-0) She downed Gray 11-6 and 8-3 in the best-of-three finals after losing to her in straight matches at 2023 Final X.  “(Adeline) put a staple on women’s wrestling,” Blades said after the Olympic Trials “This younger generation looked up to the older generation and now that they are starting to retire we’re catching up They’re just setting a great example for us My generation is super excited to keep wrestling.” No wrestler in the field has offensive tools like Blades She can shoot from space and score takedowns at will if she stays on her attacks Shorter opponents will look for a snatch single since Blades is so tall.  The best strategy is age-old: The best defense is a good offense Blades is tough to beat if she can get to her opponent’s legs and score.  Kennedy Blades and Adeline Gray faced off for the first time in the 2023 US Open finals Di Stasio made her first Olympic team but is among Canada’s best wrestlers She was a 2018 World champion at 72 kg after winning bronze at 75 kg in 2017 The 31-year-old qualified at the Pan-Am Olympic Qualifier and is among a handful of medal contenders native dropped her bronze medal match at the 2022 World Championships then finished eighth in 2023 with a 2-2 record Several top names from the 2020 Olympics aren’t in the field so this is an opportunity for Di Stasio to shine during her prime She has good straight shots and is tough to take down.  Justina Di Stasio dominated the Canadian Olympic Trials Picking a favorite at this weight is a flip of the coin Turkey’s Yasemin Adar has the best credentials but missed the 2023 World Championships at the 2022 World Championships and has key wins over the world’s best She might be the strongest wrestler in the field so getting her out of position will be difficult Adar doesn’t shoot often but is tough to take down and can score when she has to — from neutral and par terre.  Kyzy has two World medals and was within striking distance of the 2023 World gold but was injured in an exchange against Kagami during a takedown She eventually defaulted after falling behind 8-0.  Pan-American countries are well represented with Blades Renteria is a 2023 World bronze medalist and Marin is a 2019 U23 World champion.  She might have the most upside of anyone in the field Her powerful and explosive shots will be a problem for everyone in the field but the Olympics is a good time to come through.  India’s Reetika Reetika is a U23 World champion and Mongolia’s Davaanasan Enkh Amar is a World silver at 72 kg falling to American’s Amit Elor in the finals This field has diverse styles so be ready for a grab bag of results.  WorldsGold - Yuka Kagami (JPN)Silver - Aiperi Medet Kyzy (KGZ)Bronze - Adeline Gray (USA)Bronze - Tatiana Renteria (COL)5th Place - Milaimys Marin (CUB) Continentals QualifiersPan-Ams - Justina Di Stasio (CAN)Pam-Ams - Genesis Reasco (ECU)African & Oceania - Zaineb Sghaier (TUN)+African & Oceania - Hannah Rueben (NGR)Euros - Yasemin Adar (TUR)Euros - Bernadett Nagy (HUN)Asians - Reetika Reetika (IND)Asians - Juan Wang (CHN)Last Chance World QualifierCatalina Axente (ROU)Yuliana Yaneva (BUL)Davaanasan Enkh Amar (MGL) THE Yui Susaki who won gold at the Tokyo Olympics Without giving away a single point.THE Yui Susaki who has lost three bouts in 14 years.THE Yui Susaki who is a four-time World champion.THE Yui Susaki who is a two-time Asian champion.THE Yui Susaki who is a World U23 champion two-time World Juniors champion and three-time World Cadets champion.You get the drift She's the best in the 50kg category.What does this mean for Vinesh Phogat?Vinesh would have wanted to be drawn with anyone but Susaki She goes into this contest as the obvious underdog get pulled into the repechage round and be in contention for bronze The brackets for day two of #wrestling at #Paris2024 Which match are you most excited for?#Olympic2024 #OlympicGames pic.twitter.com/Yof6rSz9Nz - United World Wrestling (@wrestling) August 5, 2024 Repechage is a system that's used in wrestling to give wrestlers a second chance at a medal the wrestlers who lose to the two finalists are pulled into the repechage round to fight for the bronze medal So if Vinesh loses to Susaki and the Japanese makes the final then Vinesh will qualify for the repechage round The four wrestlers [who lost to the finalists in the pre-quarters and quarters] will battle it out for a spot in the bronze medal playoff where they will face the two losing semifinalists And there's one tiny aspect that goes Vinesh's way: the only wrestler Susaki has lost to is her compatriot Yukie Irie Fun fact: Vinesh had beaten Irie twice in 2018 at the Asian Games and Asian Championships that would be among the biggest upsets of the Olympics she will potentially face Ukraine's Oksana Livach in the quarters In the semis she could be up against former World's bronze medallist Evin Demirhan Pan American champion Guzman Lopez or Colombian fifth-seed Alisson Cardozo Rey [Vinesh beat her in June] playSharda: A 'superhuman' achievement by Vinesh (4:26)Sharda Ugra on Vinesh Phogat's incredible run to an Olympic final (4:26) UPDATE: Vinesh Phogat was later disqualified from the 2024 Paris Olympics after failing to make weight on the morning of her gold medal bout none of Vinesh Phogat's opponents at the Champ-de-Mars Arena in Paris stood a chance all driven by whatever drives Olympic athletes to succeed But Vinesh was an unstoppable force driven by a superior power: she was fuelled not by the desire for mere sporting success for that of her fellow wrestlers who took on the system with her for all athletes who had faced similar situations her achievements on Tuesday were remarkable: In the space of seven hours she beat the reigning Olympic and world champion a two-time European Games medallist and a Pan-American Games champion to go where no Indian woman wrestler has gone before: the Olympic final Timeline: The story of 18 months in the life of Vinesh Phogat, one of the most extraordinary athletes India has produced As incredible as those wins was how she did it She had three carefully charted out strategies for her three opponents beginning with the stunning win over Yui Susaki - unbeaten in her international career - via a defensive masterclass Vinesh went into the bout looking at it as a final She would have a shot at the bronze even if she lost to Susaki via the repechage system she looked well - there were no sunken eyes as is the case with most wrestlers who endure gruelling weight cuts the day before a competition It was evident that Vinesh had managed her weight well - she was leaving nothing to chance Vinesh Phogat. Getty ImagesSusaki has one of the strongest grips in her division - she practices speed skating and bouldering to strengthen her grip But even that was not enough to get a move on Vinesh Susaki went for a takedown on Vinesh's right leg the same one that was operated on last year saw it coming and lunged forward with her left leg to generate momentum and shift her weight to counter the takedown not what you usually expect to see from a traditionally all-out-attack Vinesh Susaki had never been kept quiet for so long the only other Indian woman wrestler to win an Olympic medal was pleasantly surprised to see Vinesh's defensive nous Vinesh is usually an attacking wrestler," Sakshi told ESPN after the bout "But Susaki is a very smart and experienced opponent so Vinesh switched it up today She was very smart in how she fought against Susaki lest she commit a mistake and give Susaki an opening Vinesh switched gears and got on the aggressive She knocked Susaki onto the mat and locked her in a back hold to complete the takedown Vinesh maintained the grapple to run down the clock and script one of the biggest upsets in Olympic wrestling history Vinesh Phogat takes down defending champion Yui Susaki in her opening bout at Paris Olympics LUIS ROBAYO/AFP via Getty ImagesThe most striking aspect was not the takedown in the final 12 seconds but the manner in which Vinesh defended against Susaki for the previous five minutes and 48 seconds Susaki is not someone you can shut down like that - she hadn't conceded a single point at the Tokyo Olympics to win gold It was all part of Vinesh's masterplan...she teed it up perfectly to explode in the final few seconds was in perfect contrast to the ecstasy on Vinesh's face She was the one to beat Yuki Irie at the 2018 Asian Games to become the first Indian woman wrestler to win a gold medal at the Asian Games She showed Indian wrestlers that it was possible," says Anita Sheoran a Commonwealth Games gold medallist and the lone woman to contest last December for the president post of India's wrestling federation Vinesh knew how she plays - no one has ever taken a point from Susaki at the Olympics doesn't let anyone touch her and attacks so quickly I don't think any Indian wrestler fights so intelligently." Vinesh returned to the mat around an hour later to face Ukraine's Oksana Livach in the quarterfinal Vinesh was back to her usual attacking self and dominated the bout She bagged a takedown early on and bossed the bout for most parts She even had a couple of chances to roll Livach over and wrap up the win.. And Vinesh was clever in how she handled the contest but she asked coach Woller Akos to challenge it Vinesh lost the challenge and conceded another point It gave her 30 seconds to regroup and when the bout resumed Vinesh collected another takedown to wrap up the contest It was a completely different strategy from the first bout and do what it took to inch closer to that elusive medal Vinesh Phogat - in a league of her own. PUNIT PARANJPE/AFP via Getty ImagesThen came what was effectively the medal round Now she used a perfect blend of attack and defence Vinesh also had a tiny advantage going into the semifinal: Lopez had been beaten by Oksana Livach in the repechage round of the Tokyo Olympics and Vinesh had just beaten the Ukrainian this afternoon Vinesh went about the fight with absolute poise She held back and defended with her life for large parts and attacked ferociously when even the tiniest of cracks appeared in the Cuban's defense India's only woman wrestler to fight at three Olympics She went after Vinesh's right leg repeatedly but Vinesh simply wriggled out of the attempts She let Guzman do the bulk of the attacking in the opening period and was content to hold back coach Woller Akos said something to the tune of "creep low and attack the legs" and that was the brief Vinesh needed She went for a half-hearted attempt 20 seconds in but pulled herself back She grabbed onto Guzman's right leg for a takedown and a 30-second struggle later David Ramos/Getty ImagesSpeaking to this reporter in November 2023 Vinesh said: "The only thing I have told Bajrang and Sakshi is that I will still fight I will look him [Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh] in the eye and medal leke aungi main tu dekh [bring back a medal and show it to him] her fellow wrestler and comrade in the trenches through the past 18 months echoed those words to ESPN: "She told me "I am fighting for the future generation of wrestlers my career is done and this is my last Olympics I want to fight for the young women wrestlers who will come and fight for them so that they can wrestle safely Vinesh stormed into the women’s 50kg final on the back of three stunning wins. She defeated reigning Pan American Games champion Yusneylis Guzman of Cuba in the semi-finals after getting the better of former European champion Oksana Livach of Ukraine in the quarter-finals. In her opening match, Vinesh Phogat pulled off a colossal upset against the reigning Olympic champion Yui Susaki of Japan. In the semi-final, both Vinesh and Yusneylis started defensively but the Indian wrestler was awarded a point for Yusneylis’s passivity and ended the first period with a slender one-point lead. Both wrestlers continued to be on guard at the start of the second period. However, Vinesh, in danger of conceding a point on passivity, executed two takedowns to lead 5-0. Vinesh held on to her lead in the final 30 seconds to make it the final of the Paris 2024 Olympics. On Wednesday, Vinesh will take on USA’s Sarah Hildebrandt, the Tokyo 2020 bronze medallist for the gold medal. 🥇","event":null,"destination_url":"","entry_point_tag":"base","entry_point_type":"instory_campaign"}" data-tracking="click" href="https://www.olympics.com/en/sign-in?entry_point_type=instory_campaign&entry_point_tag=base&template=base&origin=https%3A%2F%2Folympics.com%2Fen%2Folympic-channel" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Olympic Membership - Free Live Stream Sports & Original Series - join now who had to cut down weight to compete in the 50kg category for Paris 2024 registered the biggest win of her career by defeating Yui Susaki 3-2 in the opening round a three-time world champion in the 50kg category was unbeaten in international competitions with an 82-0 record before losing to Vinesh The Japanese wrestler is also a former world champion in the 48kg and a two-time Asian champion Vinesh displayed a strategic and patient approach throughout her bout against Yui Susaki The Japanese wrestler launched aggressive attacks from the start but Vinesh expertly dodged each move with remarkable speed Vinesh was penalised for passivity but trailing only 1-0 against the reigning Olympic champion by the end of the first period was a positive outcome Vinesh stuck to her defensive plan and neutralised all of Susaki’s attacks She conceded another passivity point but with just seven seconds left flipped Susaki and forced her onto the mat for two points Susaki challenged the decision but the judges ruled against her and awarded Vinesh an extra point Phogat defeated Ukraine's Oksana Livach 7-5 Vinesh executed a crucial takedown in the first period and led her opponent for the most part The Ukrainian wrestler reduced the gap in the second period but Vinesh secured four points in the final 20 seconds to clinch a massive victory with a bronze at Beijing 2008 and a silver at London 2012 is India’s most successful wrestler at the Olympics it could change if Vinesh Phogat manages to win the gold medal on Wednesday By United World Wrestling Press PARIS (July 10) -- Women's Wrestling in Paris will see only one returning Olympic champion in Yui SUSAKI (JPN) Five new Olympic champions are set to be crowned as 96 wrestlers compete in six weight classes over a week at the Paris Olympics Wrestling will be held from August 5 to 11 with Women's Wrestling scheduled each day Susaki won the gold medal at 50kg in Tokyo and is looking to defend that will hope to clean sweep in Paris with world champions Akari FUJINAMI (JPN) Tsugumi SAKURAI (JPN) and Yuka KAGAMI (JPN) entered Sakura MOTOKI (JPN) is a silver medalist from the World Championships The United States and Mongolia joined Japan as the only other teams to qualify all six weight classes for Paris Two-time world 72kg champion Amit ELOR (USA) is down at 68kg in a bid to complete the slam of winning world titles and the Olympic gold Only Susaki has achieved this feat when she won the U23 world title in 2022 Rio 2016 champion and bronze medalist in Tokyo Four-time Olympic medalist Mariya STADNIK (AZE) is going for her fifth medal a feat no one has achieved in wrestling before 10 Olympic medalists are entered in the field of 96 wrestlers Paris 2024 will also mark the first time Algeria New Zealand and Uzbekistan will send a woman wrestler to the Olympics PARIS 2024 SCHEDULE | PARIS 2024 NEWS | PARIS 2024 GRECO-ROMAN ENTRIES | PARIS 2024 FREESTYLE ENTRIES * 50kg: Son Hyang KIM (PRK) was originally entered at 50kg DPR Korea surrendered its quota which went to the next best NOC -- Italy * 62kg: Hyon Gyong MUN (PRK) was originally entered at 62kg DPR Korea surrendered its quota which went to the next best NOC -- Korea By Ken Marantz & Vinay Siwach PARIS -- The Olympic Games enter day two of wrestling at the Champs de Mars arena with Greco-Roman 77kg and 97kg and Women's Wrestling 50kg Yui SUSAKI (JPN) is hoping to defend her title from Tokyo which she won without conceding a point Artur ALEKSANYAN (ARM) is looking for his second title as well with the first coming in Rio LIVE MATCH ORDER | PARIS 2024 DAY 1 13:30: That is the end of the morning session Mohamed GABR (EGY) is into the semifinal by beating Abubakar KHASLAKHANAU (AIN) 4-1 13:19: The shocks continue as Mariya STADNIK (AZE) sees her bid for an elusive Olympic gold end when two-time world silver medalist Otgonjargal DOLGORJAV (MGL) scores a pair of takedowns in the final minute for a stunning 4-4 victory on big-point criteria Dolgorjav went into the match a bit fresher after receiving a first-round forfeit from Emanuela LIUZZI (ITA) and she used her reserves to secure what proved to be the winning takedown with 28 seconds left Stadnik challenged for eye poke which was confirmed on challenge but Dolgorjav still had criteria 13:18: Returning bronze medalist Mohammadhadi SARAVI (IRI) with a technical superiority win over Uzur DZHUZUPBEKOV (KGZ) and he is moving into the semifinal at 97kg 13:15: Sanan SULEYMANOV (AZE) is into the Greco 77kg semifinals after beating Zoltan LEVAI (HUN) 1-1 on last-point criteria then held out when on the bottom in the second 13:08: Tokyo bronze medalist Sarah HILDEBRANDT (USA) scrapes out a well-earned 7-4 victory over Ziqi FENG (CHN) to advance to the women's 50kg semifinals Feng opens with a double-leg takedown that Hildebrandt reverses for 1 The two trade takedowns as the American goes into the break with a slim 5-4 lead she clinches the win with a takedown with :40 left World champion Akzhol MAKHMUDOV (KGZ) saw his bid to become his country's first-ever gold medalist end with a 3-1 loss to Demeu ZHADRAYEV (KAZ) Makhmudov got the chance in par terre first but a series of rolls were nullified on challenge for leg use Zhadrayev applied a vicious front headlock from par terre and threw the Tokyo silver medalist for 2 13:08: World champion Gabriel ROSILLO (CUB) was in some trouble against Arvi SAVOLAINEN (FIN) but managed to hold his lead and scored a takedown on the counter in the dying seconds of the bout to win 5-2 12:58: Never count out Artur ALEKSANYAN (ARM) He was down 5-5 on criteria after Rustam ASSAKALOV (UZB) used two front headlocks to score exposure But Aleksanyan got behind and threw Assakalov for four to win 9-5 12:57: Yusneylis GUZMAN (CUB) storms into the women's 50kg semifinals with a 10-0 win over Gabija DILYTE (LTU) then reels off three rolls for an 8-0 lead Another takedown ends the match with nine seconds left in the first period 12:49: Vinesh PHOGAT (IND) follows up her monumental win over Yui SUSAKI (JPN) by holding off Oksana LIVACH (UKR) 7-5 in a scrappy women's 50kg quarterfinal Phogat gets two takedowns and leads 5-2 when Livach puts on a late surge cutting the gap to 1 with a stepout and a lost challenge 12:48: Malkhas AMOYAN (ARM) gets a 2-point throw from par terre in the first period and that holds up for a 3-0 victory over Amin KAVIYANINEJAD (IRI) and a spot in the Greco 77kg semifinals 12:45: Abubakar KHASLAKHANAU (AIN) gets the par terre the second time and turns Roberti KOBLIASHVILI (GEO) adds a four-pointer and finishes the bout 9-1 at 97kg 12:38: Top seed Nao KUSAKA (JPN) finishes off a 12-2 victory over Aram VARDANYAN (UZB) with a 4-point pancake to snatch his place in tonight's Greco 77kg semifinals 12:34: Veteran Mariya STADNIK (AZE) begins her quest for a fifth Olympic medal -- hopefully a first gold -- with a 6-2 victory over world bronze medalist Anastasia BLAYVAS (GER) The 35-year-old mother of two gets a takedown-roll combination for a 4-0 lead in the first period then gets 2 more when she rolls through a headlock attempt in the second A post shared by Olympic Wrestling (@unitedworldwrestling) 12:30: Mohamed GABR (EGY) gave no chance to Mihail KAJAIA (SRB) Gabr took a 6-0 lead and then defended the par terre position to win 6-1 and advance at 97kg 12:25: 2021 world silver medalist Sanan SULEYMANOV (AZE) gets the passivity points and fights off Aik MNATSAKANIAN (BUL) and an apparent left hamstring injury for a 2-0 victory at Greco 77kg 12:23: Tokyo bronze medalist Sarah HILDEBRANDT (USA)  goes out the backdoor for a takedown against Ibtissem DOUDOU (ALG) then transitions to the lace lock and reels off four rolls for a 10-0 win in 1:34 for a place in the women's 50kg quarterfinals 12:18: World bronze medalist Ziqi FENG (CHN) uses an effective barrel roll for two takedowns of Nada MOHAMED (EGY) scoring a fall after the second one to advance to the women's 50kg quarterfinals 12:19: Uzur DZHUZUPBEKOV (KGZ) with a big four-pointer as he moves past Mindaugas VENCKAITIS (LTU) 5-1 and enters the 97kg quarterfinals gets a second-period stepout and that's enough for a 2-1 victory at Greco 77kg over Burhan AKBUDAK (TUR) 12:08: Yusneylis GUZMAN (CUB) pulls off a thrilling 7-6 victory over Evin DEMIRHAN (TUR) at women's 50kg with an exposure during a scramble in the final seconds that took the mat chairman a long time to sort out on challenge only to give up 2-point counters down the stretch 12:00 Arvi SAVOLAINEN (FIN) with a controlled 4-0 win over Fadi ROUABAH (ALG) and moves into the quarterfinal He will take on world champion Gabriel ROSILLO (CUB) who was not the best off the block but managed to beat Lucas LAZOGIANIS (GER) 7-5 aiming to improve on his silver medal in Tokyo three years ago at Greco 77kg but rides a series of second-period stepouts to a 4-1 victory over Kamal BEY (USA) 11:53: Gabija DILYTE (LTU) uses a 2-on-1 to slam Alisson CARDOZO (COL) to her back and secures the fall at 4:14 to advance at women's 50kg 11:45: Four-time world medalist Maklhas AMOYAN (ARM) tosses his way to an 8-0 victory at Greco 77kg over Jonni SARKKINEN (FIN) The winning point comes on a lost challenge by the Finnish side scores a pair of 4-point takedowns and she advances at women's 50kg with a 10-0 victory over Aktenge KEUNIMJAEVA (UZB) 11:37: Asian silver medalist Amin KAVIYANINEJAD (IRI) gets the second of the passivity points and that's enough to defeat Yosvanys PENA (CUB) 1-1 at Greco 77kg 11:33: Vinesh PHOGAT (IND) pulls off one of the greatest upsets in Olympic wrestling history scoring a takedown in the final seconds to stun defending women's 50kg champion Yui SUSAKI (JPN) 3-2 It is Susaki's first loss ever in 95 matches against non-Japanese opponents Phogat stays completely on the defensive throughout the match giving Susaki both of her points from the activity clock Phogat goes on the offensive and knocks Susaki off balance and onto her bottom then charges ahead for a takedown with :05 left 11:26: Former world silver medalist Aram VARDANYAN (UZB) storms into the quarterfinals at Greco 77kg with a workmanlike 9-0 victory over  Mahmoud ABDELRAHMAN (EGY) 11:24: Nonoka OZAKI (JPN) bounces back from her quarterfinal loss to Meerim ZHUMANAZAROVA (KGZ) to earn a chance for a bronze medal by defeating Delgermaa ENKHSAIKHAN (MGL) 6-0 in their women's 68kg repechage match Ozaki scores two takedowns and a 2-point exposure but the former 62kg world champion still seems to be struggling with the extra weight 11:22: A minute and 44 seconds is all Artur ALEKSANYAN (ARM) needed to get over Seungjun KIM (KOR) at 97kg opening round He gets four gut wrenches from par terre to win 9-0 A post shared by Olympic Wrestling (@unitedworldwrestling) 11:20: Top seed Nao KUSAKA (JPN) begins his campaign at Greco 77kg with an impressive 9-0 win over Abd Elrim OUAKALI (ALG) Kusaka gets a 4-point lift and throw from par terre Ouakali comes near to scrambling for a takedown but Kusaka reverses the momentum to score a match-ending takedown 11:16: Abdellatif MOHAMED (EGY) uses a four-point throw in his 6-4 win over Kiril MILOV (BUL) at 130kg He will wrestle for bronze later tonight against Lingzhe DENG (CHN) 11:15: Mehdi MOHSEN NEJAD (IRI) makes short work of Kevin DE ARMAS (CUB) in the other Greco 60kg repechage He will take on world champion Zholaman SHARSHENBEKOV (KGZ) for the bronze A post shared by Olympic Wrestling (@unitedworldwrestling) 11:14: World champion Buse TOSUN (TUR) wins a battle of stepouts in the women's 68kg repechage against Wiktoria CHOLUJ (POL) earning a place in the bronze-medal match with a 4-3 win with the deciding point coming when Poland unsuccessfully challenged Tosun's third stepout 11:10: The action on Mat A gets underway with the first of the two Greco 60kg repechage matches Raiber RODRIGUEZ (VEN) will get a chance to give Venezuela its first-ever Olympic wrestling medal after scoring two 4-point takedowns in a 12-1 victory over Moamen MOHAMED (EGY) Rodriguez will face Se Ung RI (PRK) for the bronze later tonight 11:00:The day two will begin with repechage in GR 60kg and 130kg and WW 68kg Amin MIRZAZADEH (IRI) is on the mat to wrestle Seungchan LEE (KOR) He wins via technical superiority 9-0 and moves into the bronze medal bout for the evening Japan’s Yui Susaki lost to India’s Vinesh Vinesh 2-3 in her first match in the women’s wrestling freestyle 50-kilogram division failing in her bid to win a gold medal in consecutive Olympic Games The 25-year-old Tokyo Games gold medalist can move on to repechage if Vinesh advances to the finals she said in a TV interview: “It wasn’t just my dream [to win gold] There were a lot of family and friends in the venue please disable the ad blocking feature and reload the page This website uses cookies to collect information about your visit for purposes such as showing you personalized ads and content By clicking “Accept all,” you will allow the use of these cookies Users accessing this site from EEA countries and UK are unable to view this site without your consent suffering an upset and failing in her bid to win a gold medal in consecutive Olympic Games Our weekly ePaper presents the most noteworthy recent topics in an exciting © 2025 The Japan News - by The Yomiuri Shimbun Already a subscriber? Log In Video footage from all events on FloWrestling will be archived and stored in a video library for FloWrestling subscribers to watch for the duration of their subscription that's one of the most amazing storylines you'll read Vinesh Phogat will be fighting for gold in the Paris Olympics beating down upon Yusneylis Guzman Lopez of Cuba in the semifinal in a most emphatic manner to win 5-0 that began with her pulling off a stunning upset to beat reigning Olympic champion Yui Susaki (who has only been beaten three times in her career) and then Ukraine's Oksana Livach in the quarterfinal circling each other but with Vinesh controlling the flow Lopez was handed a passivity warning and then put under a clock After not being able to mount an attack in those 30 seconds Vinesh was awarded the first point of the match The match remained cagey till the final two minutes Vinesh expertly managed the remaining thirty-odd seconds to absolutely storm into the final It's made even more impressive considering how she got there Vinesh started her campaign with a stunning win over defending champion Yui Susaki The Japanese wrestler had not lost an international bout in her professional career -- losing thrice before this in ten years all to compatriot Yuki Irie -- but Vinesh undid her with a superb tactical game Defending for 5 minutes and 45 seconds of the 6-minute bout she kept Yui Susaki at bay conceding two passivity points but not worrying one bit about the 2-0 lead she had conceded Traditionally an attacking wrestler Vinesh had shown remarkable patience but she brought out her A game in the last 15 seconds to push Susaki off balance and flip her onto the mat Vinesh celebrated the win like it was a medal round Susaki's stunned face at the end said it all -- many had thought Susaki was unbeatable at this (or any) level she took on Ukraine's Oksana Livach and went back to her usual strategy She came out attacking and went 4-0 up before a Livach attack made it 4-2 then a solid hold gave her 5-2 edge which she extended to 7-2 with some sensational attacking Livach went all out in desperation but could only push the score to 7-5 as Vinesh held her at arm's length with relative ease In front of a sold-out crowd of 9,000 fans at Paris’ Champs-de-Mars Arena which sits in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower Hildebrandt mostly out-maneuvered her defensive-minded opponent to score the necessary points while avoided a late counter in the waning seconds Wearing an all-blue Team USA singlet with white stripes on the back the 30-year-old Granger native was all smiles as she entered the mat Wednesday slapped herself on the face a couple of times and locked in as chants of “USA,” rang from her family and friends in the stands More: How Sarah Hildebrandt got to the 50 kg gold medal wrestling match at 2024 Paris Olympics More: Reversal! Sarah Hildebrandt's Olympic Gold Medal opponent disqualified at weigh in Hildebrandt scored her first and only two-point takedown with 4:50 to go in the six-minute bout She earned her third point from a penalty on Guzman for inactivity Wednesday’s final capped a wild couple days for the women’s 50kg bracket gold-medal favorite Yui Susaki of Japan lost her first-ever international match falling to India’s Vinesh Phogat in the first round after a takedown with just three seconds left in the match was 82-0 in international competition before yesterday’s first-round upset Hildebrandt on Tuesday demolished first-round opponent Ibtissem Doudou of Algeria with a perfect 10-0 score then gutted out a close 7-4 match with China’s Ziqi Feng that came down to the final seconds The Granger native handled Mongolia’s Otgonjargal in the semi-final en route to Wednesday night’s final India’s Phogat cruised to the finals with a 7-5 win over Oksana Livach and a 5-0 shutout of Guzman but shockingly failed to make weight on Wednesday morning By stepping on the scales 3.5 ounces over the 50kg limit — about the weight of a deck of cards — Phogat was automatically disqualified The DQ pushed Guzman into the gold-medal match against Hildebrandt Hildebrandt had previously faced Guzman just once blanking her 10-0 in the semifinals of last year’s Pan American Wrestling Championships This is part of Slate’s 2024 Olympics coverage. Read more here It’s been a thrilling yet ultimately tragic week for one of India’s greatest wrestlers coupled with the fact that India had only ever won a single Olympic medal for wrestling (via the now-retired Sakshi Malik who nabbed a bronze in Rio for the 58kg freestyle) made the outcome of the Paris matchup seem obvious Not to mention that Susaki had never lost an international bout and the first-ever Indian woman to reach that position President of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) PT Usha met Indian wrestler Vinesh Phogat, in Paris, France She was disqualified today from the Women’s Wrestling 50kg for being overweight.(Pic source: IOA) pic.twitter.com/eKRCilr2lG as a concession from a ruling party that wasn’t in the habit of bowing to protesters’ demands Yet the person who will suffer most is not any politician or sporting chief, but Vinesh Phogat herself, who fought her absolute damndest on behalf of India and its women and to be perceived as merely a pawn in the nation’s endless political wars Japan's Yui Susaki and India's Vinesh Vinesh compete in the round of 16 of the women's freestyle 50kg wrestling match PARIS — India women's wrestler Vinesh Phogat has been disqualified from the 50-kilogram Olympic wrestling final after failing to make weight Wednesday creating a ripple effect on the medal matches and resulting in some forced adjustments by organizers Phogat defeated Cuba’s Yusneylis Guzman Lopez in the semifinals Tuesday but her disqualification pushed Guzman Lopez into the gold medal match Wednesday night Phogat had gotten off to a great start at the Paris Games stunning four-time world and defending Olympic champion Yui Susaki of Japan in her first match on Tuesday She eventually won her first three matches to earn a spot in the 50-kilogram final Team India announced on social media Wednesday that Phogat is out “It is with regret that the Indian contingent shares news of the disqualification of Vinesh Phogat from the Women’s Wrestling 50kg class Despite the best efforts by the team through the night she weighed in a few grams over 50kg this morning,” the announcement said Phogat had been seemingly unbeatable on the mat After beating top-seeded Susaki — who captured gold at the Tokyo Olympics without conceding a point — she then won her quarterfinal match against Ukraine’s Oksana Livach 7-5 and her semifinal against Guzman Lopez 5-0 to become the first Indian woman to reach an Olympic final Phogat's disqualification eliminates her from competition and moves Guzman Lopez into the final against American Sarah Hildebrandt who defeated Mongolia’s Otgonjargal Dolgorjav 5-0 in the other semifinal There are two bronze medals awarded in each wresting weight classes Phogat's disqualification created a domino effect had earned a spot in the repechage against Livach with one needing to earn a spot in a bronze medal match The Phogat-Livach match has been elevated to one of the two bronze medal matches The other bronze match will match China's Feng Ziqi and Dolgorjav — a pairing that was not impacted by Phogat's disqualification It's unclear if Phogat has ever been disqualified for not making weight She had never placed higher than ninth at the Olympics or third at a world championship event before this impressive performance at the Paris Games Phogat and other female wrestlers were detained by police in India's capital city of New Delhi after they marched on parliament following allegations of sexual misconduct by people within the sport the president of the Wrestling Federation of India Sanjay Kumar Singh later replaced him in the position The Newsday app makes it easier to access content without having to log in Unlimited Digital AccessOnly 25¢for 6 months Despite her comfortable victory to clinch the bronze medal in the women’s 50-kilogram freestyle wrestling She put her hands together in front of her chest and bowed repeatedly to the crowd in Paris By Atsushi Ueda / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer Susaki’s comeback from a stunning loss in her first match epitomized the grit and determination that had powered her to the gold medal at the Tokyo Games in 2021 but the disappointment at not winning consecutive Olympic titles was still too raw had intended for the Tokyo Olympics to be the culmination of her wrestling career The wrestling venue was Makuhari Messe in her home prefecture of Chiba But the moment Susaki stood on top of the podium in a venue devoid of spectators I want to see this view in a venue packed with people,” she thought to herself Susaki stormed to the gold medal in Tokyo without conceding a single point Her quest for consecutive Olympic titles was built on delivering similar displays of dominance Susaki’s opponents studied and analyzed her moves in more detail More and more matches did not pan out quite as she had expected Susaki dedicated a lot of time to polishing her ability to quickly react and adapt during a match a training partner since their high school days including their movements before going for a takedown “If they’re going to research how I wrestle I should simply do research on them and stay ahead,” Susaki recalled of her plan to counter her opponents She reached out directly through social media to wrestlers she admired “Jumping into an unknown world alone brings the greatest rewards Her destinations included the United States Even if she could not understand the local language she learned about wrestling grips and takedown techniques Susaki added more skills to her repertoire “She was like a different athlete from the one who competed in Tokyo,” Yoshiba Susaki was brimming with confidence when she arrived in Paris “I’d improved every aspect of my wrestling I was ready and knew that I could always win whatever happened in a match,” Susaki recalled Susaki lost to an opponent from India she had never faced before messages of encouragement from Susaki’s family and friends spurred her to keep going “I initially thought there was no point if I wasn’t going to be the Olympic champion but they supported me for just being myself,” Susaki said Susaki had won 24 international tournaments in a row and gone unbeaten against 94 wrestlers from overseas but Susaki is already determined to make amends for what unfolded in Paris “I’ll use this disappointment as motivation and I’ll definitely win gold at the Games in four and eight years from now,” Susaki said “That would be the ultimate way to repay everybody.” You will also start receiving the Star's free morning newsletter Japan’s Yui Susaki and India’s Vinesh Vinesh compete in the round of 16 of the women’s freestyle 50kg wrestling match PARIS (AP) — India’s Vinesh Phogat stunned four-time world and defending Olympic champion Yui Susaki of Japan with a late takedown to claim a 3-2 decision in their opening match in the 50-kilogram division at the Paris Olympics on Tuesday Phogat didn’t stop after upsetting Susaki She won her quarterfinal match against Ukraine’s Oksana Livach 7-5 then won her semifinal against Cuba’s Yusneylis Guzman Lopez 5-0 to become the first Indian woman to reach an Olympic final Hildebrandt defeated Mongolia’s Otgonjargal Dolgorjav 5-0 in the other semifinal It’s been quite a journey for Phogat AP Summer Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games Your browser is out of date and potentially vulnerable to security risks.We recommend switching to one of the following browsers: Account processing issue - the email address may already exist Your account has been registered, and you are now logged in. Invalid password or account does not exist Submitting this form below will send a message to your email with a link to change your password. An email message containing instructions on how to reset your password has been sent to the email address listed on your account. Vaidehi Singh Author While the 29-year-old rocked the world as she became the first Indian wrestler to enter the final of women’s 50kg she even went on to beat the invincible and world champion What was even shocking was Phogat stunning the world number one ranked wrestler in the final seconds to register match winning points and advance to the next round with a scoreline of 3-2 who entered the 2024 Paris Olympics as the reigning gold medallist and four-time World Champion said that she committed “a betrayal” for not winning the gold.  "I had the honour of winning the bronze medal at the Paris 2024 Olympics and fans who have fought with me for the past three years to win the gold medal and I'm so sorry and frustrated that I committed a betrayal," Susaki wrote in a note that was shared by United World Wrestling encouraging words from all over the world and worlds that they still believe in me and will continue to support me and I can't measure how much it touched my heart and how much it made me want to keep moving forward As long as there are people who still support me and believe in me I am strongly willing to keep going hard again to achieve my goal of becoming an Olympic champion," she further added It is to be noted that before her defeat against Phogat Susaki had not lost any of her 82 bouts in her international career.  Watch: Virat Kohli reacts to Ishant Sharma crying watching him lifting T20 World Cup OB49 Update: Free Fire Advance Server Login Guide: Check all steps MI vs GT Dream11 Prediction: Dream11 top captain and vice-captain choices for MI vs GT Match 56 of IPL 2025 What is IPL Super Sixes competition and how it is played? Alumna Yui Susaki Takes Bronze in Paris Olympics Women’s 50kg Wrestling Event Susaki (right) responds to cheers after winning the bronze medal (Photo by Kyodo News) alumna Yui Susaki (School of Sport Sciences a former member of the Waseda University Wrestling Club competed in the third-place match in the women’s 50 kg wrestling event at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games defeating Oksana Livach (Ukraine) to win the bronze medal After an unexpected loss in the first round Susaki rallied to show her true strength thereafter she scored point after point bringing the score to 8-0 she was able to finish the match with a score of 10-0 Susaki grappling with Ukraine’s Livach (Photo by Kyodo News) At the awards ceremony Susaki shed tears of frustration She later shared how tough the two days following her loss had been Susaki related how the people around her encouraged her to get back on her feet She worried that if she lost the title “Yui Susaki Olympic Champion” then she would be worthless and expressed her gratitude towards all who believed in her she vowed to do her best over the next four years so people can see her become an Olympic champion once again Congratulations to alumna Yui Susaki on taking home the bronze medal in the women’s 50kg wrestling event at the Paris Olympics I would like to sincerely commend you for picking yourself up and winning the bronze medal at the Paris Olympics despite the difficult circumstances you found yourself in which allowed you to bounce back and not give up when faced with difficulty was similar to when you secured a spot on the 2020 Tokyo Olympic team saying “If there’s even a 0.1% chance I’ll keep working hard and not give up.” I would like to express my deepest respect for your will-power and tireless effort I would like to convey my heartfelt congratulations to you who continues to train at our University’s wrestling dojo has vowed to win the gold medal at the Olympics four years from now I hope that you will continue to show us that you will keep challenging yourself congratulations on securing the bronze medal Even after an unexpected loss in the first match which erased the possibility of winning a second consecutive gold medal you managed to pull yourself up and show your characteristic wrestling style during the match to secure third place Winning a medal in two consecutive Olympics is a source of pride for all of us involved with Waseda wrestling You are known for working harder than anyone else and for your humility and positive attitude I imagine that the pressure of being the most popular and respected female wrestler in the world must be a considerable weight but I hope that you will turn that pressure into confidence and pride and make even greater strides in the future I would like to express my gratitude to Susaki’s sponsors and her family who have all helped her in her achievements and I will continue to support her as she strives to achieve new goals Waseda University Wrestling Team Coach Hidemasa Okada Susaki was stunned after losing a point near the end of the match but managed to come back after defeat and secure the bronze medal [Podcast Column] A Professor’s Work Supporting Stateless People Archer and Alumna Waka Sonoda Aims for 2028 Los Angeles Olympics Two Nobel Prize Winners From Hidankyo Visit Waseda By Vinay Siwach Spain (October 20) -- Yui SUSAKI (JPN) and history will always have Paris the Japanese wonder decided she would get herself all the world titles wrestling could offer She entered the U23 World Championships in Pontevedra a month after winning her third senior world title And wrestling for just four minutes and 47 seconds in four bouts Susaki completed wrestling 'Grand Slam' – winning all world titles and the Olympics “I wanted to take the U23 title and become the first to achieve the 'grand slam',” Susaki said Having won the U17 world titles from 2014 to 2016 Susaki won her first senior and U20 titles in 2017 and the Olympics in 2021 Well aware that this year is the last chance for her to compete at the U23 level Olympic champion Susaki entered the competition with no concerns and came out with another record to her name There were two of my predecessors who won four [age-group] titles,” Susaki said referring to Haruna OKUNO (JPN) and Masako FURUICHI (JPN) “but no one in the wrestling world had added the fifth title of the Olympics [which Susaki won in 2021] so I was definitely going to enter this year I knew this would be the first and last time [at U23].” Yui SUSAKI (JPN) pins Ankush PANGHAL (IND) in the 50kg final Susaki wrestled Ankush PANGHAL (IND) and went for the double-leg Panghal put up a fight for a brief time and even tried getting exposure to score points on Susaki something which has not happened for three years Susaki improvised quickly and locked Panghal's leg in Figure 4 and secured the fall in a minute and 52 seconds to create history and it's a feat that I could accomplish,” she said “I wanted to leave my name in wrestling history.” Wrestling will remember her as one of the most dominant wrestlers of all time if not the most she is strong while for others she is technically sound A lot of fellow wrestlers credit Susaki for her mat awareness Like the leg lace she launches or the armbar she uses to pin her opponent She will combine that with the front chest wrap to get the big points Susaki doesn't wait for her opponent's mistake She punishes them at the first opportunity she gets I mainly want to do my wrestling and before the match I keep in mind to give everything I have,” she said after winning the gold Thursday fans and even fellow wrestlers with the same energy Nothing bothers her or so she makes it seem But there is a photo of her from the World Championships in Belgrade as she is walking out for the gold medal bout Susaki is happily waving at her teammates in the stands while her opponent waited on the mat with a stern look Susaki finished the bout in a minute and 24 seconds with a pin Yui SUSAKI (JPN) won her first U23 world title She used to be a little more human early in her career feeling the nerves before a big bout of showing emotions after a tense win Susaki was guilty of going into the defensive late in the second period or getting countered on her double-leg attacks It all changed after that famous 2-2 win at the 2018 Klippan Lady Open over four-time Olympic medalist Mariya STADNIK (AZE) Susaki has never celebrated as she did after winning that unimportant entered that tournament as the world champion But the epitome of 50kg wrestling was Stadnik who did not take part in the 2017 World Championships Susaki needed to beat her to be undisputed Susaki launched an attack using a front headlock with just 13 seconds left on the clock Stadnik defended a takedown but Susaki pushed her out to lead 2-2 on criteria She never scored a single point on Susaki in their future meetings SUN Yanan (CHN) is another wrestler who troubled Susaki In their first meeting at the 2017 Asian Championships she almost won before Susaki held on for a 4-2 victory The 2019 bout at the World Cup was even closer Susaki won 3-2 but it was the last time she allowed any of her opponents to trouble her She humbled Sun 11-0 inside two minutes in the Olympic final in Tokyo to claim the gold a medal which landed in Susaki's lap after drama and help from rivals After beating 2016 Rio Olympic champion Eri TOSAKA (JPN) Susaki was the favorite to be at the Tokyo Olympics Susaki has only lost thrice -- all three losses to Irie One of those losses came in the playoff for the 2019 World Championships which was the first qualification step for the Tokyo Olympics Susaki's hopes were dashed as all Irie needed was to win a medal at 50kg in Nursultan it was a no-brainer that Irie will win one Irie suffered a 13-12 loss to Sun in the quarterfinals before Stadnik defeated Sun in the semifinals She qualified for the Olympics at the Asian Olympic Qualifiers in Almaty She made her debut at the U17 World Championships in 2014 and since then Susaki has a 72-0 international record with only 10 of those bouts going the full six minutes Susaki has spent approximately 190 minutes on the mat Her first six-minute bout came at the prestigious Ivan Yarigiun Grand Prix in 2017 which was her senior international debut Former European champion Valeria CHEPSARAKOVA (RWF) managed to keep her at bay but failed to stop her from winning 6-0 The then 16-year-old Susaki had already won three U17 world gold medals and was yet to concede a point in 17 bouts She would extend that record to 21 bouts before Anna LUKASIAK (POL) scored four points on her at the Klippan Lady Open in 2017 Susaki has scored 663 points [including 10 falls] and given up only 27 points The last time it happened was at the World Cup in Narita Japan when Sun had a takedown that ended a 125-0 run for Susaki Susaki is on a 158-0 run with a chance to extend it further next year While for most wrestlers the season is all but over This year's tournament will serve as the first qualification for the 2023 World Championships which offers quotas for the 2024 Paris Olympics And the story of Susaki and her struggles to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics are well documented she does not want to repeat the same for Paris the Paris Olympics is a special tournament,” she said “I want to see what the scenery looks like when you win a second Olympic gold I want to know what is the spectacular view And when I became a senior world champion for the first time I feel I have a destiny with the Paris Olympics.” Tatiana RENTERIA (COL) became Colombia's first ever U23 world champion (Photo: UWW / Kostadin Andonov) More history was created in Pontevedra as Tatiana RENTERIA (COL) became Colombia's first-ever U23 world champion after she defeated Dymond GUILFORD (USA) had lost the final last year to Aiperi MEDET KYZY (KGZ) but took home the gold this year with a win that got the local crowd excited she was called passive and Guilford led 1-0 at the break Guilford got going in the second period and brought down Tenteria for a takedown the Colombian managed to keep her knees from touching the match to avoid giving up any points Renteria jumped over and forced Guilford on her back giving her two points and a 2-1 lead which she maintained till the end “Last year I won silver so I had to step up here and take home the gold,” Renteria said Nesrin BAS (TUR) defeated Naruha MATSUYUKI (JPN) in the final to claim Turkey's third U23 world title in women's wrestling it was Bas who controlled the bout for most of the time and ultimately broke Matsuyuki with her high pace Japan captured two more gold medals as U20 world champion Moe KIYOOKA (JPN) defeated Mihaela SAMOIL (MDA) in the 55kg final while Himeka TOKUHARA (JPN) wrestling at her first World Championships Nonoka OZAKI (JPN) defeated returning champion Ana GODINEZ (CAN) in the 62kg semifinal Sae NANJO (JPN) will look to add to her previous U23 world title as she takes on Patrycja GIL (POL) in the gold medal bout The only final Friday which does not feature a Japanese is at 72kg as senior world champion Amit ELOR (USA) reached the gold medal bout against U23 European champion Wiktoria CHOLUJ (POL) Elor will join the select club of wrestlers with world titles at U17 Ozaki will also join the club by winning the 62kg gold while Okuno was the first wrestler to win world titles at four different levels Freestyle wrestling will begin in five weight classes – 57kg Indian wrestler Vinesh Phogat will compete in her third consecutive Olympics in Paris 2024 facing Japan's four-time world champion Yui Susaki in the first round of the women's 50 kg wrestling category Take charge of your wellness journey—download the HerZindagi app for daily updates on fitness Your skin and body like you are unique. 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For any feedback or complaint, reach out to us at compliant_gro@jagrannewmedia.com This Website Follows The DNPA’s Code Of Conduct For Any Feedback Or Complaint, Email To compliant_gro@jagrannewmedia.com Plus Akari Fujinami advances to the 53 kg freestyle final and Yui Susaki takes home a bronze Nao Kusaka won Japan’s 12th gold medal of the Paris Olympics by defeating Demeu Zhadrayev of Kazakhstan 5-2 in the Greco-Roman wrestling 77 kg final the 23-year-old Takamatsu city native plans to have a few glasses of alcohol “Champagne is not something I’m familiar with,” he said after the victory I’d like to enjoy my beer first and then maybe champagne.”   Kusaka turned things around in the second period with a take-down of his opponent He then celebrated with a back-flip across the mat “I had a plan for this fight and could not follow it. So, I just trusted my own strength and won,” said the Japanese wrestler “The gold medal is so special for me After a 40-year Olympic drought in Greco-Roman wrestling, Japan has now won two golds in as many days. On Tuesday, Kenichiro Fumita beat China’s Cao Liguo to top the podium in the 60 kg category Another wrestling gold could be on the cards on Thursday as Akari Fujinami takes on Ecuador’s Lucia Yepez Guzman in the women’s 53 kg freestyle final Yui Susaki had an even more impressive record going into the Paris Games. She was unbeaten in her previous 93 matches against opponents from other countries, but then surprisingly lost in the first round of the 50 kg competition to India’s Vinesh Phogat, who made it to the final. Prior to the gold medal match, however, Phogat failed the weigh-in and was subsequently disqualified. It meant that Susaki’s repechage bout with Ukraine’s Oksana Livach was upgraded to a bronze medal match. The Japanese wrestler secured the medal with a technical superiority victory. “People around me gave me a supportive push and got me back on my feet,” said Susaki. “I’ll give my all for the next four years so they can see me become the Olympic champion again.”  This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks. The action you just performed triggered the security solution. There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data. You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked. Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page. Volume 9 - 2021 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fcell.2021.679226 This article is part of the Research Topic3D Modelling of Mammalian Embryos and OrgansView all 14 articles a self-organizing organ-like tissue developed from stem cells can exhibit a miniaturized three-dimensional (3D) structure and part of the physiological functions of the original organ Due to the reproducibility of tissue complexity and ease of handling organoids have replaced real organs and animals for a variety of uses such as investigations of the mechanisms of organogenesis and disease onset and screening of drug effects and/or toxicity The recent advent of tissue clearing and 3D imaging techniques have great potential contributions to organoid studies by allowing the collection and analysis of 3D images of whole organoids with a reasonable throughput and thus can expand the means of examining the 3D architecture Genetic and histological cell-labeling methods also allow visualization of critical structures and cellular components within organoids The collected 3D data may enable image analysis to quantitatively assess structures within organoids and sensitively/effectively detect abnormalities caused by perturbations These capabilities of tissue/organoid clearing and 3D imaging techniques not only extend the utility of organoids in basic biology but can also be applied for quality control of clinical organoid production and large-scale drug screening reproducing the original function of organs with the use of differentiated cells remains a significant challenge as correct replication of the three-dimensional (3D) structures of the original organ is essential Although each tissue clearing protocol has unique advantages and disadvantages optimization of relatively small organoid samples is easier than that of large and complicated animal tissues detailed 3D analysis of a single organoid can expedite the clearing and 3D imaging framework for a large-scale multi-organoid screening approach to assess genetic or pharmacological perturbations the aim of this perspective is to summarize recent adaptations and prospects of tissue clearing and 3D imaging frameworks in organoid research RI matching can also be combined with other processes to remove light-scattering and light-absorbing substances from the biological tissue and pigments (decolorization or bleaching) The requirement of incorporating these steps is dependent on the experimental purpose and target tissue type Tissue clearing protocols incorporate these steps by combining various compounds and physical techniques (e.g. Organic solvent-based tissue clearing protocols originating from the Spalteholz reagent are represented by the benzyl alcohol/benzyl benzoate (BABB) method, 3D imaging of solvent-cleared organs (3DISCO), and the ethyl-cinnamate (ECi) method (Dent et al., 1989; Becker et al., 2012; Ertürk et al., 2012; Klingberg et al., 2017) these protocols have very strong clearing abilities over relatively short periods of time it is necessary to understand the characteristics of the reagents regarding tissue shrinkage and compatibility with the microscope system tissue clearing facilitates observation of the 3D architecture of biological tissues with a light microscope at the cellular or higher resolution thereby providing a powerful analytical approach for complex biological systems Clearing of cell reaggregates (spheroids and organoids) for whole-mount imaging was recommended in early protocols (Timmins and Nielsen, 2007). More recently, many of the clearing methods introduced in the previous section have been tested from simple whole-mount observations to advanced phenotyping of 3D cultured reaggregates (Costa et al., 2019; Table 1) Since most current clearing protocols are optimized for animal tissues and organs clearing cell reaggregates with the use of any of these procedures is Although tissue clearing methods have been adopted at least to some extent experience is required for further applications in broader organoid research Recent tissue clearing applications in organoid research which can be used for further 3D analysis of the cell architecture the compatibility of the cell-labeling/probing methods and microscopy setup should also be considered Since tissue clearing alone cannot label objects in a 3D structure appropriate cell/structure labeling with a fluorescent protein (FP) or histological staining is also required for observation it is crucial to consider the compatibility of the tissue clearing technique with various labeling methods While the procedure was successfully automated the protocol required a long incubation time (total 12 days for primary and secondary antibody staining) with multiple renewals of the staining reagents Various tissue clearing methods for large-scale 3D staining have been developed with improved efficiency and homogeneity. Recent developments of improved and more versatile 3D staining protocols, such as iDISCO, AbScale/ChemScale, SWITCH, and CUBIC-HistoVIsion (Renier et al., 2014, 2016; Hama et al., 2015; Murray et al., 2015; Susaki et al., 2020) have enabled large-scale 3D tissue staining with optimized permeabilization and staining steps enables immunostaining of whole mouse embryos and brains AbScale/ChemScale utilizes urea to facilitate probe penetration via Scale clearing technology SWITCH modulates the kinetics of probe binding to tissue by two procedures: SWITCH-off (inhibits probe binding) and SWITCH-on (facilitates probe binding) biological tissue was modeled as an electrolyte gel for screening of multiple essential 3D staining conditions that provides highly optimized 3D staining of cleared specimens of an entire organ and the whole body the current protocol is not applicable to multiplex immunolabeling SWITCH) can be considered to avoid this drawback The incorporation of these recent 3D staining strategies can overcome the drawbacks of labeling entire organoids have the potential to enable large-scale imaging for screening purposes owing to the compatibility of these systems for imaging of multiple organoids cultured in multi-well plates the RI range of the equipped objective lens is up to 1.48 which is incompatible with some transparent reagents with an RI of > 1.5 and thus can cause the formation of spherical aberrations when imaging large samples at higher magnifications The recently released Lightsheet 7 improves this issue with an RI range of 1.33–1.58 allowing the imaging of samples up to 2 cm in size with the use of almost any clearing reagent Regardless of the type of microscope used, the design of the entire experimental workflow should be optimized by selecting an appropriate clearing method, microscope setup, objective lens specification, and image resolution. Compatibility of some organic solvents (e.g., dibenzyl ether in iDISCO) with a commercialized LSFM should be taken into account, due to their corrosive effects such as dissolution of glues used in the construction of objective lenses (McKey et al., 2020) A proper optical resolution should also be set to meet the experimental and analytical objectives while avoiding oversampling A high numerical aperture (NA) objective lens with a short working distance can also interfere with volume imaging RI discrepancies between objective lens coverage and clearing reagents can reduce imaging quality due to spherical aberrations Whole imaging of a large kidney organoid that was generated from human iPS cells is depicted in Figure 1 (Takasato et al., 2016) The sample was cleared with CUBIC reagent (final RI = 1.52) and 3D data were collected at a voxel resolution of 2.5 μm3 to detect cell coordinates for subsequent cellular architecture analysis Low magnification macro-objectives (NA ∼ 0.1) provide reasonable image quality and data size (15.5 GB for raw 16-bit TIFF data 1.6 GB for processed 8-bit TIFF data) for this purpose Oversampling microscopic images with excessive magnification and higher NA objectives will produce redundant data sets if an image is captured at 2.5 times the voxel resolution the data size will be an order of magnitude larger (2.53 = 15.625) thereby burdening data storage and subsequent image analysis a non-competitive inhibitor of the sarco/endoplasmic reticulum Ca2+ ATPase are reported to inhibit the number and size of cysts in the disease model a genome-wide expression profile) are collected to determine the cell type or state the states of multiple single organoids can be analyzed by collecting data of the 3D cytoarchitecture This information can be finally used for the classification and clustering of the organoid population This 3D architecture-based classification and clustering methodology can also be readily combined with biological analyses of marker gene expression profiles further facilitating the extraction of essential molecular mechanisms Tissue clearing technologies can fully support such large-scale high-throughput topological analysis of multiple organoids in the future Further accumulation of technical tips and applications will be needed in future efforts The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors Both authors contributed to the conception This work was supported by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B) (JSPS KAKENHI grant 19H03413 to ES) Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas (JSPS KAKENHI grant 17H06328 to ES and UTEC-UTokyo FSI Research Grant (to ES) ES was also a senior researcher employed by CUBICStars Co The remaining author declares that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest We thank all of the laboratory members of The University of Tokyo and the RIKEN Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research (Dr. Hiroki Ueda lab); particularly, Y. Saito for her support in sample preparation and imaging. We also thank Oxford Instruments/Bitplane for instruction in operating the Imaris software. 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This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited in accordance with accepted academic practice distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms *Correspondence: Etsuo A. Susaki, c3Vpc2hlc3Mta3l1QHVtaW4uYWMuanA= Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher 94% of researchers rate our articles as excellent or goodLearn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish Susaki won the gold medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics (50kg event) without conceding a single point Sushil Kumar (2008 and 2012), Yogeshwar Dutt (2012) and Bajrang Punia (2020) are India's other medalists Kyrgyzstan (April 13) -- Reigning world and Olympic champion Yui SUSAKI (JPN) finally showed some chinks in her armor Not enough to suffer a first-ever loss to a non-Japanese opponent but enough to give her something to think about with four months to go to the Paris Olympics Susaki faced the rare situation of trailing in a match in the women's 50kg final at the Asian Championships but managed to right the ship and defeat Ziqi FENG (CHN) 8-4 on Saturday at Bishkek Arena to regain the title she won in her last appearance in 2017 "To go through such troubling matches before the Olympics is an important experience in order to win the gold in Paris," said Susaki who earlier overcame a tough challenge from Yong Ok HWANG (PRK) "I want to make use of this feeling of regret so that after I win the gold I can say it was good I had this experience." Japan won two of the four other women's golds at stake on the third day of the competition with two-time world champion Nonoka OZAKI (JPN) triumphing in her first international foray at the Olympic weight of 68kg and 2022 world U23 champion Moe KIYOOKA (JPN) winning the 55kg title in her senior Asian debut World silver medalist Aiperi MEDET KYZY (KGZ) sent the home fans happy by rallying to a thrilling victory in the 76kg final to cap the night which earlier saw world champion Qi ZHANG (CHN) storm to the 59kg gold to follow up her victory over two-time Olympic champion Risako KINJO (JPN) in the afternoon session Yui SUSAKI (JPN) attempts an unsuccessful front headlock roll against Ziqi FENG (CHN) in the 50kg final during the Asian Championships (Photo: United World Wrestling / Amirreza Aliasgari) the stop in Bishkek is part of her final preparations in the run-up to the Paris Olympics although she is trying to see it in a positive light "To be in a tough situation and still be able to come out with a victory gives me a boost of confidence," said the four-time world champion Susaki was facing an opponent she had beaten twice in the past seven months -- an 8-2 win in the semifinals at last year's World Championships in Belgrade and a 10-0 rout in the final of the Zagreb Open in January But it became obvious that her opponents are doing their homework on the superstar who has only three losses in her entire career Feng got on the scoreboard first with a counter lift for 2 but Susaki rolled through it and gained 2 of her own But she lost the criteria advantage when Feng stuffed her on a front headlock roll for a 4-2 lead It looked like it would stay that way to end the period but Susaki came back with a driving takedown off a high crotch just seconds before the buzzer Susaki kept her composure and scored a pair of takedowns to clinch the victory which runs her current streak to 54 wins in a row "I wasn't trying for any specific tackle and I tried to hit a front headlock roll," Susaki said "But I realize I can improve on the combination and it makes me want to quickly get back to practice." Susaki's first bump in the road came in her opening match in the quarterfinals against Hwang had been out of the international wrestling scene for much of the past five years Susaki received two activity points before Hwang came to life and scored a stepout late in the second period She was close to scoring another when Susaki wriggled out of danger then stopped a desperate front roll attempt to win 4-1 "She came up with a strategy to keep the score low and put everything into deciding it at the end," Susaki said I'm going to go back to Japan and figure out how to deal with an opponent who avoids contact and saves it for the end." Susaki remains among the most popular wrestlers on the circuit as attested by the cheers for her from the Bishkek crowd "It was my first Asian Championships in seven years," Susaki said it was my first challenge at a senior tournament It was very moving to be back after seven years The Kyrgyz people supported me and I was very happy to be able to compete with so many cheering for me Nonoka OZAKI (JPN) completes a takedown against world silver medalist Delgermaa ENKHSAIKHAN (MGL) in the 68kg semifinals during the Asian Championships mainly handling a move from 62kg to 68kg over one year with a stop at 65kg in between to win another world title but it didn't matter if I lost as long I took something away from it," Ozaki said "I wanted it to be a test of what level I am at." Ozaki won the gold with a 15-2 victory over 2022 Asian U23 champion RADHIKA (IND) her third consecutive technical fall of the day in which she was on the mat for a combined time of just over seven minutes "My transition from standing to the ground position was good and I could get big points," Ozaki said "I want to continue working on that in practice." suffered a devastating setback when she lost out on the place at the Paris Olympics in that weight class to Sakura MOTOKI (JPN) After moving up to 65kg for another chance to win a world title the opportunity to earn a ticket to Paris arose at 68kg and she grabbed it by beating Ami ISHII (JPN) in a playoff in January Ozaki has a speed advantage over her opponents she has been spending time filling out into the heavier weight "I still have room to get bulkier and put on weight," she said "I think I'll be much bigger the next time you see me." Moe KIYOOKA (JPN) scores a two-point takedown in her 7-0 win over Kyong OH (PRK) in the 55kg final during the Asian Championships Kiyooka pulled away in the second period for a 7-0 victory over Kyong OH (PRK) adding the senior Asian gold to the world U23 and U20 titles she won in 2022 but I got injured and that was tough to take," the 20-year-old Kiyooka said Kiyooka received an activity point for the lone score of the first period sandwiched around an exposure for stopping a reverse fireman's carry that the Korean wrestlers use so effectively "The Japan team has many top-level wrestlers and I got power from them," Kiyooka said but I was able to move just as I do in practice." Kiyooka defeated former world champion Haruna OKUNO (JPN) for the first time at the All-Japan Championships in December She said her goal now is to secure a ticket to this year's senior World Championships she still has a future interest in the city Her older brother Kotaro KIYOOKA (JPN) will be coming in an attempt to earn an Olympic quota in freestyle 65kg at the Asian Olympic Qualifier "I wanted to create good momentum to pass off to my brother," Kiyooka said Aiperi MEDET KYZY (KGZ) celebrates after winning the 76kg final during the Asian Championships in Bishkek on Saturday (Photo: United World Wrestling / Amirreza Aliasgari) her 10-7 victory over Yuanyuan HUANG (CHN) in the 76kg final was similar in nature to a match between them 10 months ago in Bishkek but far more dramatic and with more at stake bulled her way to a 4-point takedown -- her second of the match -- with 35 seconds left to regain the Asian title she won in 2022 in her fifth straight trip to the final but you saw that there were lots of our fans in the stands and each of them needed to see my victory At the Bishkek Ranking Series tournament last June Huang led 3-0 after the first period of the final when Medet Kyzy rallied to a 5-3 win scoring the winning takedown with 23 seconds left Qi ZHANG (CHN) celebrates after beating two-time Olympic champion Risako KINJO (JPN) in the 59kg quarterfinal during the Asian Championships Zhang needed less than a minute to score a takedown lock up an arm and score four straight rolls to vanquish Anudari BATKHUYAG (MGL) 10-0 That gave her her first Asian title after a pair of bronzes from 2017 and 2019 It was Zhang's second straight 10-0 win after her victory over Kinjo The Chinese beat the two-time Olympic champion by getting the latter of two activity points and win 1-1 on criteria Risako KINJO (JPN) won the bronze medal at 59kg at the Asian Championships made sure she would not leave Bishkek empty-handed overwhelming Dilfuza AIMBETOVA (UZB) 13-2 in a 59kg bronze-medal match who capped her victory with a driving 4-point takedown that ended the match with five seconds left in the first period Kinjo was appearing in her first international competition since winning the 57kg gold at the Tokyo Olympics and missed out on a place at the Paris Olympics at 57kg to world champion Tsugumi SAKURAI (JPN) Kinjo moved up to 59kg and won the national title to earn the ticket to Bishkek I don't know if she even knew I had changed my name Host Kyrgyzstan picked up two bronze medals and both in dramatic fashion at the expense of opponents from rival neighbor Kazakhstan Aruuke KADYRBEK KYZY (KGZ) gave up what should have been a decisive 2-point arm throw to Zulfiya YAKHYAROVA (KAZ) with four seconds left only to come away with a 5-3 win by managing to score a reversal with less than one second on the clock An unsuccessful challenge accounted for the final score Gulnura TASHTANBEKOVA (KGZ) also gave up early points to Albina KAIRGELDINOVA (KAZ) at 68kg but came back with a counter to the back and scored a fall at 2:09 Diana KAYUMOVA (KAZ) took home the other bronze at 59kg with a wild 11-8 victory over Pushpa YADAV (IND) Kayumova was leading 7-7 on criteria when she clinched the win with her second 4-point move of the match -- a Greco-like back suplex Hui Tsz CHANG (TPE) prevented Japan from having a medalist in every weight class when she overcame a four-point deficit to defeat 2022 world U23 bronze medalist Yasuha MATSUYUKI (JPN) 8-6 whose defense of her 76kg title ended with a semifinal loss to Medet Kyzy also worked her way out of a four-point hole but did it by pancaking PRIYA (IND) and scoring a fall in the second period Shivani PAWAR (IND) used her counter style of wrestling to maximum effect pulling off a last-second victory with a counter lift to stun three-time world medalist Otgonjargal DOLGORJAV (MGL) 9-7 In arguably the biggest victory of her career had given up a go-ahead takedown to Dolgorjav with 20 seconds left who won a bronze medal as a member of the last DPR Korea team to appear at the Asian Championships in 2019 will go home with another after defeating Thi Xuan NGUYEN (VIE) 4-2 at 50kg denied Dulguun BOLORMAA (MGL) a fourth senior Asian medal when she notched an entertaining 15-5 victory at 55kg Zhang led by a modest 2-1 in the second period when she scored a takedown and two rolls to go up 8-1 Bolormaa caught Zhang with a 4-point headlock throw but her inability to secure the fall was her undoing as Zhang came back with a 4-point takedown and gut wrench to finish the technical fall at 5:26 World silver medalist Delgermaa ENKHSAIKHAN (MGL) earned her fourth senior Asian medal -- still none gold -- when she edged Zelu LI (CHN) 2-1 for the other 68kg bronze with all of the points coming on the activity clock This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page taking the international stage for the first time since her Olympic triumph last year Susaki stormed to her third world title with a first-period fall over Otgonjargal DOLGORJAV (MGL) in the 50kg final on Wednesday the first of four women's finals on the fifth day of the World Championships in Belgrade "I'm really happy I could be at a tournament again on this stage," said Susaki who added to the world golds she won in 2017 and 2018 "This is a tournament where I knew I could become the world champion if I went into each and every match looking to have fun and give my all while doing my wrestling Powerhouse Japan got a second gold later in the night when Miwa MORIKAWA (JPN) upgraded the silver medal at 65kg that she won a year ago in Oslo while Olympic bronze medalist Yasemin ADAR (TUR) won her second world title at 76kg and unheralded Dominique PARRISH (USA) emerged victorious from a wide-open field at 53kg in her senior world debut Yui SUSAKI (JPN) pinned Otgonjargal DOLGORJAV (MGL) in the 50kg final who has yet to lose to a non-Japanese opponent in her career ravaged the field with four wins by either fall or technical fall she prevailed in the final despite not being able to secure a tackle or her trademark lace lock Susaki gained two points against 2021 bronze medalist Dolgorjav with a front headlock roll which she then transitioned into an exposure situation that put the Mongolian onto her back "I summoned my courage and wanted to go on the offensive so it was good that I was able to do that," Susaki said Susaki takes her most recent triumph with a grain of salt as some of her fiercest rivals were missing from the competition most notably four-time Olympic medalist Mariya STADNIK (AZE) and Asian rival Yanan SUN (CHN) the ones I faced in the Olympics didn't enter so I definitely wanted to win in a dominant way and take the title," she said it was a good tournament leading to the Paris Olympics." As much as fans have come to expect Susaki to be dominant she again claimed that she can achieve an even higher level and I want to get back to Japan soon and start practicing to get stronger," she said Asked what part of her game she needs to address Susaki replied: "Tackling is my strong point I need to find a way to break through when the opponent ties up so I can get in on more tackles and that will lead to more points Having graduated from Waseda University last March Susaki was presented with an ideal environment that allows her to pursue the sport full-time in her bid for an Olympic repeat in Paris in 2024 Susaki became an "employee" of Kitz Corporation a major valve-maker located in her home prefecture of Chiba where she was a product of the JOC Elite Academy It has also expanded her already swollen fan base I was supported by my company Kitz," Susaki said the number of people supporting me has increased That has given me energy and gives me a reason to work hard I am even more motivated to get stronger." For those who can't get enough of the 23-year-old dynamo they won't have to wait long to see her in action She plans to enter the World U23 Championships next month in Spain with the mission of securing a historical victory "The U23 title is one I don't have yet," she said but I think I would be the first to win the five titles of world cadet I will prepare earnestly to get stronger and win it." Susaki has been beaten only three times since junior high school One of those losses kept her from defending her world title in 2019 Miwa MORIKAWA (JPN) shoots for Jia LONG (CHN) leg in the 65kg final Morikawa picked up Japan's fourth women's gold of the tournament by holding on for a 2-0 victory over Jia LONG (CHN) in a 65kg final that left her a mixture of happy and disappointed In what could be regarded as a de facto Asian final -- China skipped this year's Asian Championships where Morikawa won the gold -- the Japanese prevailed by scoring a stepout and an activity point in the first period "To win the gold and not give up a point was good where she will bid farewell to the 65kg class as she decides which Olympic weight class to move into "My goal is to take a lap [on the mat] with the Japanese flag at the Paris Olympics," she said Morikawa certainly has a positive support system She trains at her alma mater of Nippon Sports Science University from which she graduated in March and often practices with men and one of her coaches is four-time Olympic champion Kaori ICHO (JPN) Yasemin ADAR (TUR) won her second world title at 76kg Adar was holding her own against a tough Samar HAMZA (EGY) when she unleashed a 4-point front headlock with :10 left to put an exclamation point on a 6-0 victory who won her fifth European title earlier this year "I am an idol in women's wrestling in Turkey and that makes me proud there will be many good wrestlers after me and if I can be an example I had promised my family that I will bring the belt home." Adar received an activity point in the first period who became Egypt's first-ever female to make a world final will take home the silver to go with the bronze she won last year in Oslo Dominique PARRISH (USA) celebrates after winning the 53kg world title Parrish was trailing 2-2 on criteria when she avoided a trip by Asian silver medalist Khulan BATKHUYAG (MGL) and slipped around the back for a takedown and a 4-2 victory "I know that nobody is going to outgas me," said Parrish who was at the Tokyo Olympics as a training partner I knew it was going to be tough but having the freedom to let myself go." Pan Am champion Parrish addressed the elephant in the room -- the absence of 2021 world champion Akari FUJINAMI (JPN) who was a late withdrawal from the tournament after suffering a foot injury in practice " They [Japan] are always the target for the women's team but Japan is always disciplined in its stance and techniques We are going to pick them apart and beat them." Sarah HILDEBRANDT (USA) wrestles Emilia VUC (ROU) in the 50kg bronze medal bout Hildebrandt survives mat scare to take bronze Olympic bronze medalist Sarah HILDEBRANDT (USA) had a scary incident that seemed to leave her momentarily unconscious but managed to come back to defeat Emilia VUC (ROU) by a 10-0 technical fall in 5:40 It was after the second one that Vuc applied a vicious front headlock and turned Hildebrandt over the referee stopped the match as her coach leaped to the mat to assist her Hildebrandt said she was alright to continue Vuc lost her points for the dangerous hold and Hildebrandt gained another takedown before the break She then got two more in the second period to end the match and add to her two world silvers The other 50kg bronze went to Anna LUKASIAK (POL) who came up with a 2-point exposure as she was receiving an activity point with :20 left to edge Miesinnei GENESIS (NGR) 3-2 Ecuador had two chances to win its first-ever world medal but both Lucia YEPEZ GUZMAN (ECU) at 53kg and Genesis REASCO (ECU) at 76kg were denied Maria PREVOLARAKI (GRE) gave up two quick-fire takedowns to Yepez Guzman she locked onto the laces and three rolls one way and two more the other gave her a 14-4 technical fall in 1:44 Vinesh PHOGAT (IND) defeated European champion Jonna MALMGREN (SWE) to win the 53kg bronze medal The other 53kg bronze went to eight-time Asian medalist Vinesh PHOGAT (IND) who put up a stiff wall of defense and scored on counters against European champion Emma MALMGREN (SWE) Phogat also scored on the two occasions when she went on the offensive to notch an 8-0 victory to add to the world bronze she won in 2019 Yuka KAGAMI (JPN) spoiled the Ecuadorian party when she scraped out a 4-0 victory over Reasco the 2019 world junior champion making her senior debut activity point and a defensive takedown in the first period then held off Reasco to add another medal to the Japanese tally The other 76kg bronze went to Epp MAE (EST) who scored a stepout with :27 left to defeat 2018 world champion Justina DI STASIO (CAN) and secure her fifth career world medal the United States got another bronze when Mallory VELTE (USA) routed Mimi HRISTOVA (BUL) 11-2 for her second world medal while Koumba LARROQUE (FRA) edged Elis MANOLOVA (AZE) 3-2 for her third Amit ELOR (USA) reached the 72kg final in her first senior appearance Teen Elor joins elite American compatriots in finals In the semifinals held earlier in the night session teenager Amit ELOR (USA) stunned defending champion Masako FURUICHI (JPN) 3-2 to join two of her highly decorated compatriots in the finals held Thursday night coming off winning a second straight world U20 title a month ago in Sofia Furuichi finally got the takedown she so desperately sought with :05 left but had insufficient time to turn her Elor said she stuck with the game plan that gave her wins in her first two matches by technical fall and fall "My style is putting a lot of pressure and not giving my opponents any space," she said Elor will face last year's runner-up to Furuichi who had a pair of 4-point moves in powering to a 12-2 technical fall over Alexandra ANGHEL (ROU) in 3:55 Elor's victory came after current and former world champions Helen MAROULIS (USA) at 57kg and Tamyra MENSAH STOCK (USA) at 68kg booked their spots in the finals by bringing their bouts to early ends but it’s also very stressful that I am on their level," Elor said Japan had wrestlers in all four semifinals but only prevailed twice -- and those two face the daunting task of taking on Maroulis and Mensah Stock in the finals defending champion Maroulis will aim for a fourth world gold when she takes on Tsugumi SAKURAI (JPN) She moved up to the Olympic weight class to get an early start on challenging Tokyo champion Risako KAWAI (JPN) for a spot at Paris 2024 Maroulis used an ankle pick to send 2021 bronze medalist Davaachimeg ERKHEMBAYAR (MGL) to her back and secure a fall at 5:20 had little trouble in disposing of Zhala ALIYEVA (AZE) by 10-0 technical fall in 4:47 Maroulis has a long history of facing the Japanese in big matches She shocked three-time Olympic champion Saori YOSHIDA (JPN) in the final at the 2016 Rio Olympics in what proved to be Yoshida's final match of her career she fell to Kawai in the semifinals and had to settle for a bronze medal Olympic champion Mensah Stock swept away 2021 world 65kg champion Irina RINGACI (MDA) and will next face teenager Ami ISHII (JPN) in a bid to add to the world title she won in 2019 getting between the legs on the second one to add a pair of exposures and cruised to a 10-0 technical fall in 2:29 like Elor a gold medalist at the world U20 last month needed a late takedown to edge Nisha DAHIYA (IND) 5-4 Sakura MOTOKI (JPN) failed to join Ikuei University teammates Ishii and Sakurai in the finals when she dropped a 7-5 nail-biter to Anastasia NICHITA (MDA) roared back with a takedown and roll to go ahead But Nichita managed to reverse Motoki to her back at the end of the roll An unsuccessful challenge of a last-second stepout attempt added the final point Nichita suffered a heartbreaking loss in the quarterfinals when Evelina NIKOLOVA (BUL) hit a last-second 4-point lateral drop for a 6-3 victory who assured herself a first world medal in four attempts when she forged out a 5-3 win over Jowita WRZESIEN (POL) PARIS — Yui Susaki won a bronze medal in the women’s 50-kg freestyle wrestling at the Paris Olympics on Wendensday in Paris on Tuesday | Photo: ANIParis :  Vinesh Phogat of India stunned four-time world champion Yui Susaki of Japan with a late takedown to claim a 3-2 decision in their opening match of women's freestyle wrestling (50 kg)  at the Paris Olympics on Tuesday won the gold medal at the Tokyo Games three years ago without conceding a point Phogat won her quarterfinal match 7-5 against Oksana Livach of Ukraine to qualify for the semi final Phogat tore her anterior cruciate ligament during her Olympic quarterfinal in 2016 and was taken out on a stretcher For Susaki to have a chance to fight for a medal through repechage Phogat faces Yusneylis Guzman Lopez of Cuba on Tuesday night in a semifinal Such comments are punishable under cyber laws The opinions expressed here are the personal opinions of readers and not that of Mathrubhumi PARIS — Nao Kusaka won gold medal in men’s Greco-Roman wrestling in the 77-kilogram class at the Paris Games on Wednesday It was the debut Olympic appearance for Kusaka PARIS — Nao Kusaka won the gold medal in men’s Greco-Roman wrestling in the 77-kilogram class at the Paris Games on Wednesday a gold medalist at the Tokyo Games in 50-kilogram women’s freestyle wrestling lost in this year’s semifinals but won her bronze match to add another medal to her collection is guaranteed a gold or silver medal in the 53-kilogram class having won her semifinal match in freestyle wrestling and missed its chance to advance to the finals finished eighth in the men’s 3,000 meters steeplechase final He has managed to place in the top eight at two Olympics in a row Rachid Muratake became the first Japanese athlete to secure a final spot in the men’s 110-meter hurdles at the Games thanks to his strong semifinal performance Celebrate Vinesh Phogat's historic victory over Olympic champion Yui Susaki discover the inspiring journey of this Indian wrestling sensation who's making waves on the world stage