Lightweight, Freestyle (≤58 kg), Women

Since women’s wrestling was added to the Olympic programme in 2004, Kaori Icho of Japan has won a gold medal at every single Games. Entering Rio in 2016, Icho also had 10 World titles to her credit (eight in 63 kg, two in 58 kg), and had gone undefeated in almost 13 years. Her 189 consecutive match-winning streak was finally broken in January 2016 by Mongolian wrestler Pürevdorjiin Orkhon, who had the best chance to dethrone the Olympic champion based on recent history, despite being world-ranked No. 7, coming into Rio.

Also in the hunt to prevent Icho from her place in history, were Petra Olli of Finland (world-ranked No. 1 in 60 kg) who lost to Icho at the 2015 World Championships, and Valeriya Koblova of Russia (world-ranked No. 2 in 58 kg, right behind Icho), who lost in the final to Icho at the 2014 World Championships.

En-route to the Rio gold medal final, Icho won two matches by technical fall, and gave up only a single point in her other match. However, in the final against the Russian Koblova, she found herself trailing late in the match, behind 2-1. Then, with five seconds left on the clock to make Olympic history, Icho was awarded a two-point score, and dramatically won 3-2. With the win, Icho became the first wrestler ever to win four Olympic gold medals. She was also the first female in any sport to win an individual-event gold at four Games.

Last-second victories were also pulled out in the two bronze medal matches, were the two winners both won their nations first-ever medals in women’s wrestling with late scores. In the first bronze medal bout, Marwa Amri of Tunisia scored a four-point take down with less than 10 seconds left to win 6-3 over Yuliya Ratkeviç of Azerbaijan. In bronze medal match number two between India’s Sakshi Malik and Kyrgyzstan’s Aysuluu Tynybekova, the points were tied at 5-5, with Tynybekova leading on criteria, but Malik then scored two points as time expired, and a failed challenge from Tynybekova made the final score 8-5 to the Indian.