Weekend Results, Medal Counts, and Match Scores from the 2021 Olympic Wrestling Competition.
Greco Roman 97kg Olympic Games Tokyo 2020
At the Tokyo Olympics, the United States wrestling team won the most medals overall by virtue of its silver and bronze finishes in the final three events.
Sarah Hildebrandt added to the tally with a bronze medal in the women’s freestyle 50 kilogramme category, and Kyle Snyder took second place in the men’s 97 kilogramme freestyle race.
With the results of Snyder and Hildebrant, the United States won nine medals out of a possible 18 throughout the 18 weight categories at the Olympic level.
The United States swept the freestyle medals, taking home nine in all.
None of the six Greco-Roman events won by American men were victorious.
Japan dominated the wrestling competition, taking home the most medals overall after winning two of the three gold medal matches on Saturday.
Host nation Japan took home seven medals in all; five of them were gold. Takuto Otoguro and Yui Susaki won gold on the last day.
Those who took home hardware on Saturday were:
Freestyle 65kg Men’s
- Takuto Otoguro of Japan won the gold.
- Metal: Haji Aliyev of Azerbaijan
- With the bronze, India’s Bajrang Punia
Gadzhimurad Rashidov of the Russian Olympic Team won bronze.
With his victory in the men’s freestyle competitions, Otoguro brought Japan its first gold medal.
All of Japan’s wrestling victories up until last Saturday were in the lighter weight classes for women who compete in freestyle. In the men’s Greco-Roman competition, the host country won two medals: silver and bronze.
Otoguro, the reigning world champion at 65 kilogrammes, edged out Haji Aliyev of Azerbaijan in a thrilling gold-medal match by a score of 5-4.
Otoguro has narrowly beaten his last two opponents. With a 3-2 victory in the semi-finals, he eliminated Gadzhimurad Rashidov from medal contention.
In the bronze medal matches, Rashidov of the Russian Olympic Committee and Bajrang Punia of India both won 5-0 shutouts.
Freestyle wrestling, 97 kg for men:
- Abdulrashid Sadulaev of Russia won the gold.
- Silver: American Kyle Snyder
- Abraham of Galilee, Conyedo Ruano, Italy, Bronze
- Reineris Salas Perez of Cuba won bronze.
Snyder failed to successfully defend his gold medal at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, but he did bring home a silver medal.
The Russian Olympic Committee’s Abdulrashid Sadulaev defeated the three-time NCAA champion and two-time global champion. Due to the doping issue in Russia, the country’s flag and national anthem have been banned from competition.
Sadulaev won the 86 kilogramme weight class five years ago in Brazil, earning him a gold medal. He competed at a higher weight class and won two world titles in 2018 and 2019.
Winning 6-3 over Snyder, the 25-year-old Russian clinched his current hegemony over the weight class.
With Snyder’s silver, the United States now has five medals in freestyle wrestling. Gold medalists Gable Steveson and David Taylor, together with bronze medalists Kyle Dake and Thomas Gilman, returned home from the games.
50kg Women’s Freestyle:
- Japanese athlete Yui Susaki wins the gold.
- Yunan Sun, China, takes silver.
- Bronze: Sarah Hildebrandt, United States
- Azerbaijan’s Mariya Stadnik won bronze.
Hildebrandt’s bronze medal performance in the women’s 50 kilogramme freestyle weight class rounded off the American medal collection in wrestling.
By beating Oksana Livach of the Ukraine 12-1, Hildebrandt won one of the two bronze medals at the competition. And Azerbaijan’s Mariya Stadnik took home the other.
After losing in the semifinals to Yunan Sun of China by a score of 10-7, Hildebrandt had to settle for a bronze medal match.
After Japan’s domination in the women’s weight classes was halted by Yui Susaki, the Chinese wrestler took silver.
Susaki won the gold-medal match by a score of 10-0 to become the fourth Japanese woman to win a wrestling gold medal.
Japan placed third overall in the sport, behind the United States and the Republic of China by a single medal.
