Middleweight, Freestyle (≤63 kg), Women

When Mongolia’s Soronzonboldyn Battsetseg won a bronze medal at the 2012 Olympic Games in London in the 63 kg weight class, it was her country’s first Olympic wrestling medal since 1980. She became a household name, adorning billboards and such, and was more popular than the president of Mongolia. Already the 2010 World champion at the time of the London Olympics, she added another World title in 2015 (after a World silver in 2013) making her the favourite for the 63kg class coming into Rio 2016. With Kaori Icho of Japan, who she had major global losses to, moving down to the 58 kg, Battsetseg had former Icho understudy, the 2015 World silver medalist Risako Kawai of Japan, and Ukraine’s Yuliya Tkach, with whom she has traded gold medals with over the last two World Championships, to contend with for Rio gold.

But in a shocking turn, the World champion Battsetseg was upset by American Elena Pirozhkova in the quarter-finals, and Tkach didn’t advance past the second round. Meanwhile Kawai dominated in her preliminaries, only giving up two points in three bouts en-route to the gold medal match, where she met Mariya Mamoshuk of Belarus who was making her Olympic début. The Belarussian had earlier beaten Kazakhstan’s Yekaterina Larionova 8-2, Sweden’s Henna Johansson 7-2 and American Pirozhkova 3-2. However, Kawai was too much for the Olympic rookie, and she ran out the 3-0 winner, and with victory came Japan’s fourth wrestling gold medal in Rio. She celebrated in style by delivering two fireman’s carry takedowns on her coach Kazuhito Sakae after he ran up to congratulate her after her victory. Needless to say, the video of it went viral!

Larionova won her bronze medal over Pirozhkova, while Poland’s Monika Michalik, the four-time European champion competing in her third Olympic Games, defeated Inna Trazhukova of Russia, for the other bronze.