United World Wrestling, the international governing body for amateur wrestling, is mulling revising Olympic weight categories ahead of the Tokyo 2020 Games, a source with knowledge of the move said Tuesday.
According the source, changes will be made in the women’s categories in which Kaori Icho (58 kg) Risako Kawai (63 kg) and Sara Dosho (69 kg) all won gold medals at last year’s Rio Olympics.
UWW is to draw up a plan and discuss adopting the revisions at a technical committee meeting.
The lightest 48-kg class, which was won by Eri Tosaka in Rio, is set to remain, while the 53-, 58-, 63-, 69- and 75-kg divisions are expected to be become 60, 66, 72 and 78.
Icho won her fourth straight gold medal in Rio. The changes mean it is highly likely she would have to battle Kawai for a place on the national team for the 60-kg class at Tokyo 2020 in order to bid for a fifth straight Olympic gold.
The 66-kg class is close to Dosho’s regular weight category as is the 54 for Saori Yoshida, who wrestles at 53.
In the men’s freestyle and Greco-Roman competitions, the changes would be unified. The 57, 65, 74, 86, 97 and 125 classes currently held in free and the 59, 66, 75, 85, 98 and 130 in Greco-Roman would switch to 60, 70, 80, 90, 100 and 130.
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