User:Bill william compton/Saori Yoshida

Saori Yoshida (born 5 October 1982 in Tsu, Mie Prefecture) is a Japanese wrestler who competes in the freestyle 55 kg division. Yoshida is three times Olympic gold medallist, nine times World Champion, four times Asian champion and three times Asian Games gold medallist. Yoshida won the Olympic gold in 55 kg category in Athens 2004, Beijing 2008 and London 2012. Yoshida's achievement of nine World Championships and three Olympics titles is equivalent to Aleksandr Karelin's, who is considered to be the greatest Greco-Roman wrestler of all time.

Early life and junior career
Yoshida was born on 5 October 1982 in Tsu, capital city of Mie Prefecture, to Yukiyo and Hidekatsu Yoshida. She has a family of wrestlers. Her father, Hidekatsu Yoshida, won the national wrestling championship in 1973. She has two older brothers who are also wrestlers. She entered in wrestling at the age of three under her father's supervision. Yoshida finished her schooling from Hisai High school.

Yoshida's first internationally significant achievement came in 1998 when she won the Cadet Wrestling World Championship held in Manchester in 1998. She competed in the 52 kg weight category. At the 1999 Cadet Wrestling World Championship in Łódź, Poland, she switched over 56 kg category and again won a gold medal. Prior to joining seniors age group, Yoshida won two consecutive World Junior Wrestling Championships in 2000 and 2001, competing in the 58 kg weight category.

Senior career
Yoshida's first major international senior competition was at the 2002 World University Wrestling Championship, held in Edmonton. This was the first edition of the Championship in which women wrestling was introduced. Yoshida won a gold medal of 59 kg category.

Two major events, World Wrestling Championships and Asian Games, were scheduled in 2002, and Yoshida had to defeat world champion Seiko Yamamoto to make a berth in the national team. Yoshida won her match against Yamamoto by 8–1 in the national team trials.

Wrestling has been contested at the Summer Olympic Games since they first began in 1896 with the exception in 1900 Paris Games. However, it wasn't until 28th edition of the Games, when women wrestling was included in the official Olympic program. Like other women wrestlers, Yoshida was also waiting for this moment from long time. She expressed her pleasure, "before we always wanted that it would be a major sport. Now that is included. Everything is forgotten and I am happy".