Middleweight (≤70 kilograms), Women

Chizuru Arai was the 2017 and 2018 world champion in the middleweight division but was only seeded three on the ranking list. However, competing on home soil made her one of the favourites for gold at the Tokyo Games. Arai had won the first two contests with Ippon (full point) when she faced Madina Taymazova in the semi-final. A native of North Ossetia representing the Russian Olympic Committee, her outstanding results had been bronze medals at the 2020 and 2021 European Championships. But she was able to resist Arai in a hard fight for more than 16 minutes, when the Japanese finally managed to apply an Okuri-eri-jime (choke hold) for an Ippon (full point) at 16:41 min. In the final, a foot technique called Ko-soto-gari (small outer reap) at 1:08 min earned Arai a Waza-ari (half point), which was sufficient to defeat the surprise finallist from Austrian, Michaela Polleres. But silver for the 24-year-old bronze medallist from the 2021 World Championships and 2014 Youth Olympic Games was well deserved. Due to the draw, she had to sustain one more fight to reach the final. On her way, she defeated the two top seeds, Barbara Matić and Sanne van Dijke with Waza-ari. The Dutch Van Dijke eventually claimed bronze after throwing the German Giovanna Scoccimarro after 11:44 min by O-goshi (major hip throw).

Taymazova, the second semi-final loser, suffered a serious eye injury in a previous fight, which got worse during her heroic fight against Arai. She had to go into the bronze medal contest half blinded by a swollen eye. Nevertheless, she was consoled with the medal after scoring a Waza-ari against favourite and reigning world champion Matić from Croatia. Her injury was later diagnosed as post-traumatic paraorbital hematoma (black eye).