Heavyweight, Freestyle (≤72 kg), Women

This was the only 2004 women’s wrestling event in which the favorite did not win. That role settled on Japan’s Kyoko Hamaguchi, who had won the 2002-03 World Championships. Her main contenders were expected to be China’s Wang Xu, runner-up at the 2002 Worlds, American Toccara Montgomery, runner-up at the 2003 Worlds, and Canadian Christine Nordhagen, World Champion in 2000 and three times a World Champion as a middleweight. Only Wang and Hamaguchi got through the pools to the knockout phase, where they were drawn against each other in the semi-final, with Wang winning, 6-4, in a controversial decision where the Japanese coaches thought two points awarded to Wang should have gone to Hamaguchi. Wang’s finals opponent was Russian Gyuzel Manyurova, who had recently won the 2004 European title, but she was no match for Wang, who won the gold medal, 7-2. Hamaguchi did come back to win the bronze medal, which she would repeat at Beijing in 2008. At only 18-years-old, Wang’s victory made her the youngest ever Olympic wrestling champion.