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 34) Tsu, Japan
Alma mater	Shigakkan University
Height	1.57 m (5 ft 2 in)
Weight	53 kg (117 lb)
Sport
Sport	Wrestling
Event(s)	Freestyle
Club	High School Wrestling Club Hisai Sogho Security Services ALSOK Tokyo
Coached by	Masanori Ohashi Shigeo Kinase Kazuhito Sakae Eikatsu Yoshida
Medal record Representing  Japan Women's Freestyle Wrestling Olympic Games 2004 Athens 55 kg 2008 Beijing 55 kg 2012 London 55 kg 2016 Rio de Janeiro 53 kg World Championships 2002 Chalkida 55 kg 2003 New York 55 kg 2005 Budapest 55 kg 2006 Guangzhou 55 kg 2007 Baku 55 kg 2008 Tokyo 55 kg 2009 Herning 55 kg 2010 Moscow 55 kg 2011 Istanbul 55 kg 2012 Canada 55 kg 2013 Budapest 55 kg 2014 Tashkent 53 kg 2015 Las Vegas 53 kg Asian Games 2002 Busan 55 kg 2006 Doha 55 kg 2010 Guangzhou 55 kg 2014 Incheon 55 kg

Saori Yoshida (吉田 沙保里, Yoshida Saori^?, born 5 October 1982) is a Japanese freestyle wrestler. Starting in 1998 she won almost every major competition, including three Olympic Games, four Asian Games, and 13 world championships, and became the most decorated athlete in freestyle wrestling history. 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.

Yoshida was the flagbearer for Japan at the 2006 Asian Games and at the 2012 Olympics. 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.

Yoshida started competing internationally as a cadet, in 1998, in the 52 kg category. By 2002, when she moved to seniors, she competed in the 59 kg division. The same year, she lost 4 kg, and remained in the 55 kg category until 2014. She moved to the 53 kg class at the 2014 World Cup and World Championships as part of her preparation for the 2016 Olympics, where the traditional 48–55–63–75 kg scheme will be changed to 48–53–58–63–69–75 kg. However, two weeks after the World Championships she returned to the 55 kg category at the 2014 Asian Games, which kept the old weight divisions.

Yoshida is the daughter of Eikatsu Yoshida, a former national champion and wrestling coach. She started training in wrestling aged 3, following her father and two elder brothers. Since 2011 she is a face of the and regularly appears in their commercials.

In December 2008, the wrestling singlet which Yoshida wore in the Olympic final bout earlier that year, was sold for 551,000 yen (ca. US$6,123) at an internet auction, and the money was donated to the Japanese Red Cross society.