Saori Yoshida

Saori Yoshida
Saori Yoshida with her coach Kazuhito Sakae after winning the 2008 Olympic gold
Personal information
Born (1982-10-05) 5 October 1982 (age 42)
Tsu, Mie, Japan
Alma materShigakkan University[1]
Height1.57 m (5 ft 2 in)
Weight53 kg (117 lb)
Sport
SportProfessional wrestling
EventFreestyle
ClubHigh School Wrestling Club Hisai
Sogho Security Services[2]
ALSOK Tokyo[1]
Coached byMasanori Ohashi
Shigeo Kinase[1]
Kazuhito Sakae
Eikatsu Yoshida[3]

Saori Yoshida (吉田 沙保里, Yoshida Saori, born 5 October 1982) is a Japanese former freestyle wrestler. Starting in 1998, she won almost every major competition,[4] including three Olympic Games, four Asian Games, and 13 world championships, and became the most decorated athlete in freestyle wrestling history.[5] As of 2016, Yoshida had only three senior career losses in international competitions, to Marcie Van Dusen (0–2) on 20 January 2008 at the Team World Cup series, Valeria Zholobova (1–2) on 27 May 2012 at the World Cup, and to Helen Maroulis (1–4) on 18 August 2016 at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.[6]

Yoshida was the flagbearer for Japan at the 2006 Asian Games[1] and at the 2012 Olympics.[7] In 2007, she became the first female wrestler to be named Japanese Athlete of the Year, and in 2012 she received the People's Honour Award.[1]

  1. ^ a b c d e "YOSHIDA Saori". incheon2014ag.org. Archived from the original on October 2, 2014.
  2. ^ "Saori Yoshida". sports-reference.com. Archived from the original on April 17, 2020.
  3. ^ "To Our Friends in Wrestling Around the world". japan-wrestling.org. 2008.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference iat was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference lobby was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Odeven, Ed (May 31, 2012). "Yoshida returns focus to Olympic three-peat after rare defeat". The Japan Times. p. 20. Archived from the original on May 30, 2012.
  7. ^ "OLYMPICS WRESTLING: 2-time gold medalist Yoshida eager to break 'flag-bearer jinx'". The Asahi Shimbun. August 4, 2012. Archived from the original on August 8, 2012. Retrieved August 15, 2012.