Middleweight, Freestyle (≤62 kg), Women

The women’s freestyle wrestling middleweight tournament was characterized by the fact that the four medals were claimed by the four top-seeded athletes, albeit not in the order of the seeding. It was expected that gold would be won by Aysuluu Tynybekova from Kyrgyzstan. The 31-year-old from Bishkek dominated the division for years, winning World championship gold in 2019, 2021, and 2022. In Tokyo 2020, she lost a close final to Japanese Yukako Kawai.

The #2 on the Paris ‘24 seeding list was Sakura Motoki, who moved up to become Japan’s best wrestler in the middleweight division after the early retirement of Kawai. The young Motoki was a rising star, winning World championship bronze in 2022 (59 kg) and silver in 2023 (62 kg). The #3 seed was the experienced Tokyo bronze medalist Iryna Koliadenko from Ukraine, and #4 Grace Bullen represented Norway. The latter had an Olympic past as gold medalist in the 2014 Youth Olympic Games. Born in a refugee camp in Eritrea, she came to Norway at the age of four and immediately took up wrestling. Having medaled at the last two Worlds, she could also be counted among the potential medalists in Paris.

Tynybekova did not prove to be as strong as expected, narrowly escaping elimination after a draw against American Kayla Miracle in the quarter-final. Tynybekova then suffered a clear 9-2 points defeat by Koliadenko in the semi-final. Motoki saved a lot of energy and spent only nine minutes winning her first three rounds by fall (twice) and technical superiority. One of her victims was the Norwegian in the semi.

The final was a short and one-sided match. Motoki scored 12-1 points in less than two minutes and was the winner by technical superiority. Koliadenko took one step up the podium by taking silver, after bronze in Tokyo.

The Paris bronze medals went to the defeated semi-finalists. The Canadian Ana Godinez was an easy prey for Bullen, losing by technical inferiority. Again, Tynybekova had a hard time to draw with the Mongolian Pürevdorjiin Orkhon, but was eventually declared the winner.