Gray of the United States of America is defeated in the finals by Rotter-Focken of Germany at 76 kg.
Freestyle 76kg Olympic Games Tokyo 2020
Adeline Gray, an American wrestler, never achieved the breakthrough she had hoped for.
The German Aline Rotter-Focken won the 76-kilogram women’s freestyle wrestling tournament on Monday night, defeating her 7-3.
Gray has won five world titles, but none at the Olympics. She battled injuries that forced her to miss a year of competition and yet managed to place seventh at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
She came back from that to win another two world championships and the top Olympic seed. She was positive that she would win gold in the Olympics, joining Helen Maroulis as the only two American women to ever win in the sport of wrestling at the Olympic level.
Gray is confident that her legacy will endure despite her loss. To put that in perspective, it was only the sixth medal ever won by a U.S. woman in the sport of wrestling.
“I came for gold, but I have silver instead,” Gray replied. “And it means a lot to me to bring home an Olympic medal for the United States. I would have preferred a different hue, but I’m looking forward to taking some new tools home with me.
The No. 2 seed, Rotter-Focken, showed her Feelings after the win.
It’s absolutely out of this world,” she exclaimed. I’ve wished for this for a long time, and I’ve worked hard every day to make it a reality. We are in the midst of an unbelievable situation. I’ll need some time to process this before I can accept it.
Gray’s passivity gave Rotter-Focken an early advantage. She responded to a shot by Gray by scoring three of her own and then added four more points on the other end of the court to make it 7-0.
In fact, Gray was taken aback by the toss.
She shoved her hips into me and squished me to the ground, and I’m a big, strong lady,” Gray recounted. And she used the height advantage she has over me to her advantage.
Gray’s long-awaited first basket came on a step-out with a minute left.
With only 30 seconds left, she scored two on a takedown, but it wasn’t enough.
Then she saw her friend raise the German flag and begin to celebrate. They’ve both been competing since they were teenagers and are now 30 years old.
Gray gushed, “Aline is a buddy, and I am so thrilled that I got to go out on the mat and compete alongside her.” In spite of my best efforts, she won this round.
My guess is that our friendship will only become stronger from here on out. Maybe not until the end of the year, once the World Cup is over. I’m anticipating her presence there.
Qian Zhou of China and Yasemin Adar of Turkey both Finished in third Place.
Cuba’s Mijain Lopez made history by beating Georgia’s Iakobi Kajaia 5-0 in the Greco-Roman 130-kilogram final to win his fourth Olympic wrestling gold medal.
The 38-year-old went a perfect 4-0 in games in which he didn’t allow a goal. Just like the Japanese wrestler Kaori Icho, he has won four Olympic gold medals.
In 2004, 2008, 2012, and 2016, Icho won freestyle swimming gold medals. Lopez had already won gold at 120 kg in 2008 and 2012, as well as 130 kilogrammes in 2016, before his success on Monday.
In a rematch of the 2016 gold medal match, Lopez defeated Riza Kayaalp of Turkey 2-0 in Sunday’s semifinals.
Kayaalp Defeated Amin Mirzazadeh of Iran, 7-2, to Claim Bronze.
The other bronze medal went to Sergey Semenov of the Russian Olympic Committee, who beat off Yamani Acosta Fernandez of Chile.
On the same day, Luis Orta Sanchez of Cuba defeated Kenichiro Fumita of Japan 5-1 in the 60 kilogramme final. Fumita, a two-time world champion and the top seed, was competing in his native country.
On Tuesday, American Tamyra Mensah-Stock, the top seed in the women’s 68 kilogramme freestyle category, will compete for the gold medal.
After being deadlocked 4-4 with Ukraine’s Alla Cherkasova in the final two minutes of their Monday semifinal, she eventually won 10-4. Mensah-opponent Stock’s in the championship match is Blessing Oborududu of Nigeria.
Mensah-first Stock’s opponent was the 69kg Rio gold medalist Sara Dosho of Japan on Monday.
At the 2:07 mark, Mensah-Stock had already established technical advantage and won the match 10-0. After leading 6-0 at the half against Feng Zhao of China in their quarterfinal match, she went on to win 10-0 due to technical dominance at 4 minutes and 39 seconds.
Ildar Hafizov, a U.S. citizen, was competing in the 60-kilogram division of the Greco-Roman wrestling tournament for the purpose of advancing to the bronze medal match.
In the first session, he had a 1-0 lead over Russian Olympic Committee No. 2 seed Sergey Emelin, but he was completely outmatched in the second and lost 7-1. As a result of her efforts, Emelin took home bronze.
G’Angelo Hancock, an American, opened his Greco-Roman 97 kg campaign with a 5-1 victory over Mihail Kajaia of Serbia.
When the score was 1-1 in the quarterfinals, Polish player Tadeusz Michalik won it with a step-out. A challenge from the United States was met with defeat, giving Michalik another point. Michalik was able to squeak out a 4-3 victory.