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]
Medal record
Women's freestyle wrestling
Representing  Japan
Olympic Games
Gold medal – first place 2004 Athens 55 kg
Gold medal – first place 2008 Beijing 55 kg
Gold medal – first place 2012 London 55 kg
Silver medal – second place 2016 Rio de Janeiro 53 kg
World Championships
Gold medal – first place 2002 Chalkida 55 kg
Gold medal – first place 2003 New York 55 kg
Gold medal – first place 2005 Budapest 55 kg
Gold medal – first place 2006 Guangzhou 55 kg
Gold medal – first place 2007 Baku 55 kg
Gold medal – first place 2008 Tokyo 55 kg
Gold medal – first place 2009 Herning 55 kg
Gold medal – first place 2010 Moscow 55 kg
Gold medal – first place 2011 Istanbul 55 kg
Gold medal – first place 2012 Edmonton 55 kg
Gold medal – first place 2013 Budapest 55 kg
Gold medal – first place 2014 Tashkent 53 kg
Gold medal – first place 2015 Las Vegas 53 kg
Asian Games
Gold medal – first place 2002 Busan 55 kg
Gold medal – first place 2006 Doha 55 kg
Gold medal – first place 2010 Guangzhou 55 kg
Gold medal – first place 2014 Incheon 55 kg
Asian Championships
Gold medal – first place 2004 Tokyo 55 kg
Gold medal – first place 2005 Wuhan 55 kg
Gold medal – first place 2007 Bishkek 55 kg
Gold medal – first place 2008 Jeju 55 kg

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.