Rei Higuchi

Rei Higuchi
Higuchi at the 2016 Summer Olympics
Personal information
Nationality Japan
Born樋口黎
(1996-01-28) January 28, 1996 (age 30)
Japan
Height163 cm (5 ft 4 in)
Sport
Country Japan
SportWrestling
Weight class
61 kg
Event
Freestyle
ClubNippon Sport Science University;Tokyo
Coached byKenichi Yumoto

Kazuhito Sakae

Takahiro Wada
Achievements and titles
2nd place, silver medalist(s) (2016) 1st place, gold medalist(s) (2024)
World finals
1st place, gold medalist(s) (2022) 2nd place, silver medalist(s) (2023)
Regional finals
1st place, gold medalist(s) (2022)
Medal record
Men's freestyle wrestling
Representing  Japan
Olympic Games
Gold medal – first place2024 Paris57 kg
Silver medal – second place2016 Rio de Janeiro57 kg
World Championships
Gold medal – first place2022 Belgrade61 kg
Silver medal – second place2023 Belgrade57 kg
Asian Championships
Gold medal – first place2022 Ulaanbaatar61 kg
Bronze medal – third place2017 New Delhi61 kg
Grand Prix
Gold medal – first place2024 Budapest57 kg
Bronze medal – third place2017 Krasnoyarsk61 kg
Gold medal – first place2016 Spala57 kg
Gold medal – first place2016 Skopje61 kg
Bronze medal – third place2015 Ulaanbaatar57 kg
Bronze medal – third place2015 Ulan-Ude61 kg
World U23 Championships
Gold medal – first place2018 Bucharest65 kg

Rei Higuchi (Japanese: 樋口黎; born 28 January 1996) is a Japanese freestyle wrestler. He won the gold medal in the men's freestyle 57 kg event at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, France. He won a silver medal in the 57 kg division at the 2016 Olympics. He won the gold medal in the 61 kg event at the 2022 World Wrestling Championships held in Belgrade, Serbia.

Career

Higuchi studies at the Nippon Sport Science University. He fractured his right hand in October 2015, but won the All Japan Tournament in December that year.

Higuchi received a silver medal at the 2016 Olympic Games after a controversial loss in the final to Vladimer Khinchegashvili. Khinchegashvili secured a 4-3 victory after trailing Higuchi 3-2 late in the match. The turning point came when Higuchi was put on the 30-second activity clock due to passivity with 1:13 remaining. After Higuchi failed to score within those 30 seconds, Khinchegashvili was automatically awarded a point to take the lead on tiebreaking criteria (3-3). Higuchi's corner challenged the shot clock ruling, but the challenge was lost, and another point was awarded to Khinchegashvili's score (4-3).

On 28 January 2017, Higuchi competed at the Golden Grand Prix Ivan Yarygin 2017. In qualification, he was eliminated by Gadzhimurad Rashidov of Russia, but wrestled back to win a bronze medal against Bulat Batoev of Russia. On September 18, 2023, he won a silver medal in the 57-kilogram weight class at the 2023 World Wrestling Championships in Belgrade. In the final, he lost to Serbian wrestler Stevan Mićić. In Paris 2024, he won the gold medal against Spencer Lee of the United States.

References

  1. ↑ "Wrestling Results Book" (PDF). 2024 Summer Olympics. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 August 2024. Retrieved 12 August 2024.
  2. ↑ "Rei Higuchi". Rio 2016 Olympics. Archived from the original on 26 August 2016. Retrieved 19 August 2016.
  3. ↑ Higuchi, Rei (JPN) Archived 20 August 2016 at the Wayback Machine. iat.uni-leipzig.de
  4. ↑ "2022 World Wrestling Championships Results Book" (PDF). United World Wrestling. Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 September 2022. Retrieved 18 September 2022.
  5. ↑ Rei Higuchi Archived 20 September 2016 at the Wayback Machine. nbcolympics.com
  6. ↑ Vladimer Khinchegashvili wins gold in 57kg freestyle wrestling, Wwlp.com
  7. ↑ "Ахмед Чакаев, Даурен Куруглиев и Алан Хугаев - победители гран-при "Иван Ярыгин"-2017 - Федерация спортивной борьбы России". Archived from the original on 2 February 2017. Retrieved 28 January 2017.
  8. ↑ "WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS 2023 RESULTS".