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 has won five

FILA Wrestling World 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 ...

and two

Olympic Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece b ...

Bronze medals in the 72 kg weight class. She is sponsored by Japan Beverage Inc. and was nominated by the

Japanese Olympic Committee The is the National Olympic Committee in Japan for the Olympic Games movement, based in Tokyo, Japan. It is a non-profit organisation that selects teams and raises funds to send Japanese competitors to Olympic events organised by the Internati ...

's Special Athlete Campaign. Her father is professional wrestler

Animal Hamaguchi is a Japanese retired professional wrestler, better known by the ring name . During his career he was recognized as a talented tag team wrestler despite his relatively small size for a heavyweight, and today he is recognized as a trainer in bot ...

, who is known for his emotional displays during Kyoko's matches. Although Kyoko has long wanted to follow in her father's footsteps and enter the professional game, the lack of a stable women's circuit since the collapse of

All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling , nicknamed Zenjo (全女: 全 meaning "All", 女 meaning "Woman") was a ''joshi puroresu'' (women's professional wrestling) professional wrestling promotion, promotion established in 1968 by Takashi Matsunaga and his brothers. The group held th ...

has kept her from doing so.

Profile

She swam while in junior high school. At the age of fourteen, she decided that she wanted to be a female professional wrestler and trained in the Animal Hamaguchi's Wrestling Dojo. She has won the Japan Championship every year from 1996 to 2006, and has won the World Championships five times. In both the

2004 Athens Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics ( el, Θερινοί Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες 2004, ), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad ( el, Αγώνες της 28ης Ολυμπιάδας, ) and also known as Athens 2004 ( el, Αθήνα 2004), ...

and the

2008 Beijing Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Nat ...

, she won a bronze medal in the 72 kg class. She was also a flag bearer for the Japanese team in the opening Olympic ceremonies in 2004.

Results

*1996 - win - Japan Championship (70 kg) *1997 - win - Japan Championship (70 kg) *1997 - win - World Championship (75 kg) *1998 - win - Japan Championship (75 kg) *1998 - win - World Championship (75 kg) *1998 - FILA's female wrestler of the year *1999 - win - Japan Championship (75 kg) *1999 - win - World Championship (75 kg) *2000 - win - Japan Championship (75 kg) *2001 - win - Japan Championship (75 kg) *2001 - win - East Asia Competition *2002 - win - Japan Championship (72 kg) *2002 - win - World Championship (72 kg) *2002 - win - Asian Games at Busan (72 kg) *2003 - win - Japan Championship (72 kg) *2003 - win - World Championship (72 kg) *2004 - 2nd - Testing Competition for Athens Olympics (72 kg) *2004 - 3rd - Athens Olympics (72 kg) *2004 - win - Japan Championship (72 kg) *2005 - 2nd - World Championship (72 kg) *2005 - win - Japan Championship (72 kg) (winning for 10 years), MVP () *2006 - win - Japan Queen's Cup (72 kg) *2006 - 2nd - World Cup (72 kg) *2006 - 2nd -

Asian Games The Asian Games, also known as Asiad, is a continental multi-sport event held every four years among athletes from all over Asia. The Games were regulated by the Asian Games Federation (AGF) from the first Games in New Delhi, India, until t ...

(72 kg) *2007 - 2nd - Asia Championship (72 kg) *2008 - 2nd - Asia Championship (72 kg) *2008 - 3rd - Beijing Olympics (72 kg)

Awards

*''

Tokyo Sports is a Japanese daily sports newspaper founded in 1960. See also * Tokyo Sports Film Award * Tokyo Sports Puroresu Awards The are Japanese professional wrestling, or ''puroresu'', awards that have been handed out by the ''Tokyo Sports'' mag ...

'' ** Wrestling Special Award (1998, 1999, 2002-2006)

References

External links

bio on fila-wrestling.com
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hamaguchi, Kyoko 1978 births People from Taitō Living people Japanese female sport wrestlers Wrestlers at the 2004 Summer Olympics Wrestlers at the 2008 Summer Olympics Wrestlers at the 2012 Summer Olympics Olympic wrestlers of Japan Olympic bronze medalists for Japan Sportspeople from Tokyo Olympic medalists in wrestling Asian Games medalists in wrestling Wrestlers at the 2002 Asian Games Wrestlers at the 2006 Asian Games Wrestlers at the 2010 Asian Games Wrestlers at the 2014 Asian Games Medalists at the 2008 Summer Olympics World Wrestling Championships medalists Medalists at the 2004 Summer Olympics Asian Games gold medalists for Japan Asian Games silver medalists for Japan Asian Games bronze medalists for Japan Medalists at the 2002 Asian Games Medalists at the 2006 Asian Games Medalists at the 2010 Asian Games