Heavyweight, Freestyle (≤76 kilograms), Women

The favorite and #1 seed was American Adeline Gray, who came in as a five-time World Champion, including winning this class in 2018 and 2019. Her biggest challenge was expected to come from Germany’s Aline Rotter-Focken, a 2014 World Champion at 69 kg and the 2020 World Cup Champion in this class. The defending Olympic Champion was Canada’s Erica Wiebe, who also won at the 2014 and 2019 Commonwealth Games, but she was unseeded and would lose her opening match.

Gray and Rotter-Focken both made it to the finals, although they had difficult matches in the semi-finals, both winning on points in close matches. Gray defeated Kyrgyzstan’s Aiperi Medet Kyzy, 3-2, while Rotter-Focken beat Japan’s Hiroe Minagawa, medallist at the last three Worlds and the #3 seed, 3-1.

The final was a relatively easy victory for Rotter-Focken, defeating Gray 7-3, after piling up some early points. Neither Medet Kyzy nor Minagawa won bronze medals, as both were defeated in the repêchage finals by falls, Medet Kyzy taken down by Turkey’s Yasemin Adar and Minagawa losing to China’s Zhou Qian. Adar was a four-time European Champion and the 2017 World Champion but was not seeded and had the misfortune to meet Gray in the quarter-finals.