Featherweight, Freestyle (≤53 kilograms), Women

India’s Vinesh Phogat was seeded first, followed by Japan’s Mayu Mukaida, and then Ecuadorian Luisa Valverde and China’s Pang Qianyu. Phogat was the 2018 Asian and Commonwealth Games Champion, but had also been a COVID-19 victim, although she had recovered by the time of the Olympics. The 2019 World Champion was Pak Yong-Mi of North Korea, but that country elected not to compete at Tokyo. The defending gold medallist was American Helen Maroulis, who was back at Tokyo but had moved up in class to 57 kg.

Phogat won her opening match but then was taken down by fall in round two by Belarussian Vanesa Kaladzinskaya. Kaladzinskaya then faced Pang in the semi-finals, but lost a desperately close match, 2-2, that was decided by judges’ decision. Mukaida won her three matches relatively easily to also advance to the final.

Mukaida and Pang had a very close match with the Japanese coming out on top at full time, 5-4, to secure the gold medal. The bronze medals went to the losing semi-finalists, Kaladzinskaya and Mongolia’s Bat Ochir Bolortuya.