is a Japanese

freestyle wrestler Freestyle wrestling is a style of wrestling originated from Great Britain and the United States. Along with Greco-Roman, it is one of the two styles of wrestling contested in the Olympic Games. American high school and men's college wrestling i ...

. She won the gold medal in the women's 62 kg event at the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...

held in Tokyo, Japan. In 2018, she won the silver medal in the women's 62 kg event at the

World Wrestling Championships The World Wrestling Championships are the Amateur Wrestling World Championships organized by United World Wrestling. The Men's Greco-Roman Wrestling tournament began in 1904, and the Men's Freestyle Wrestling tournament began in 1951. The Women's ...

held in Budapest, Hungary. A year later, she won one of the bronze medals in this event.

Career

In 2017, she competed in the women's 63 kg event at the

in Paris, France without winning a medal. She won her first match against

Elmira Gambarova Elmira Gambarova (born 14 March 1994) is an Azerbaijani freestyle wrestler. She won the silver medal in the women's 62 kg event at the 2019 European Games held in Minsk, Belarus. In the same year, she also won one of the bronze medals in the 59 ...

but she was eliminated from the competition in her next match against

Jackeline Rentería Jackeline Rentería Castillo (born February 23, 1986 in Cali, Colombia) is a female wrestler from Colombia. She won a bronze medal in the women's freestyle 55 kg at the 2008 Summer Olympics, and repeated the feat in the women's freestyle 55 ...

of Colombia. Rentería went on to win one of the bronze medals. She won the gold medal in the women's 62 kg event at the

2020 Asian Wrestling Championships The 2020 Asian Wrestling Championships was held at the KD Jadhav Indoor Stadium, Indira Gandhi Arena, New Delhi in India. The event took place from 18 to 23 February. China was barred from entering into the competition due to the COVID-19 pandemi ...

held in New Delhi, India. In the final, she defeated Ayaulym Kassymova of Kazakhstan. In 2021, Kawai won the gold medal in the 62 kg wrestling division at the Tokyo Olympics. Her older sister Risako won gold in the 57 kg division the following day.

Achievements

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kawai, Yukako Living people 1997 births Japanese female sport wrestlers World Wrestling Championships medalists Asian Wrestling Championships medalists Wrestlers at the 2020 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic medalists in wrestling Olympic gold medalists for Japan Olympic wrestlers for Japan 21st-century Japanese women