Risako Kawai at the 2019 World Championships (Photo/Tony Rotundo; WrestlersAreWarriors.com)When the Tokyo Olympics finally begin in late July, with wrestling competition scheduled for early August, the host country will be looking forward to few events more than women's freestyle wrestling. The Japanese team has been a dominant force since the beginning of the style, winning at least one individual title in every world championship except for the very first, in 1987. Since women's freestyle was introduced at the Olympic Games, Japan has claimed more than half of all gold medals in the discipline, claiming the top spot in 11 of 16 weight classes contested.
After a bit of a down performance at the 2019 world championships, with just one gold and six medals across the 10 weight classes, the Japanese women will be looking to make a statement in front of their home fans. That tournament further proved their superiority, however, as they still took home the team championship despite their subpar performance. That team title pushed the all-time scoreboard, including unofficial Olympic team competitions, to Japan 27, everyone else in women's freestyle 7.
While we wait to see what happens in Tokyo, we wanted to put Japan's dominance into perspective. Looking back at the history of international wrestling, only one nation has dominated any style of wrestling as thoroughly as the Japanese are doing now. While that nation no longer exists, the USSR and the many nations who were a part of it continue to loom large over the sport. We wanted to see just how close the Japanese women have come to doing what the Soviet Union was able to do during it's reign.
To begin, we'll look at team titles won.
Can we just take a minute to appreciate that the USSR claimed every Greco team title at a world championship or Olympic Games that they participated in? From 1952 through 1991, save for the 1984 boycott, if the competition was held, the Soviets were taking top honors. I can't imagine we'll ever see that again. It took them longer to own men's freestyle, but they did rattle off consecutive championships from 1969 through 1990, again with the exception of 1984. Japan's team winning percentage compares favorably to USSR's men's freestyle, though they have yet to have as long of a winning streak. Their best run consisted of eight straight team titles and they are currently winners of the last seven in a row.
Team titles are a good start, but when you're head and shoulders above your peers, individual medals may be a better way to measure just how dominant you are.
As remarkable as Japan has been, they can't quite match what the USSR did in either of the men's styles. In addition to medaling at a higher rate overall and winning more gold medals, we must remember that all of the USSR's statistics come from a time when there was only one bronze medal. Since 2005, Japan has wrestled under the double bronze system. On the other hand, Japan has had to deal with each of the old Soviet states being able to enter a competitor in each weight, instead of all of them being under one banner. Russia, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine, and Belarus have all claimed gold medals in women's freestyle, suggesting the brackets may be deeper now.
Japan has won as many as six gold medals in one world championship (1994 when there were 9 weights) and has won a medal at every weight contested 4 times in 34 world or Olympic competitions. Their best team performance came in 2006 when they claimed five golds, one silver, and one bronze across the seven weights on offer in Guangzhou, China.
The USSR won as many as seven gold medals in men's freestyle (three times) and eight golds in Greco (1975 when there were 10 weights) at one world-level competition. Greco claimed a medal at every weight six times in 36 competitions, while men's freestyle accomplished the feat 4 times in 36 attempts. Their most dominant teams were 1983 for men's freestyle with seven golds, two silvers, and one bronze across 10 weights in Kyiv and 1976 for Greco with seven golds, two silvers, and one bronze across 10 weights at the Montreal Olympics.
Two Japanese individuals that cannot be matched by their Soviet counterparts are Saori Yoshida and Kaori Icho. Those two stand first and second on the all-time list of most world-level gold medals across all three styles of wrestling. Yoshida is first with 16, three Olympic titles and 13 at the world championships, while Icho's four Olympic gold medals are more than any other wrestler, male or female, has claimed. With Icho's 10 world championship crowns, the two legends have 30 world-level championships between them. The only other wrestlers to hit double digits to date are Alexander Medved (10, USSR, MFS), Riza Kayaalp (10, TUR, GR), and Aleksandr Karelin (12, USSR and RUS, GR).
As we can see, while Soviet Greco stands alone as the gold standard of dominance in international wrestling, the Japanese women hold their own by most measures. However, while the Soviet story has long since been ended, Japan may very well continue to build on its legacy. They have been even more dominant at the Junior level in recent years so, despite their relative lack of success at the 2019 world championships, there are plenty of reasons to believe that Japan will continue to rule. Can they reach the dizzying heights of the USSR or will developing rivals slow their rate of success? We will see the next chapter written in that story in a little more than a month.
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