Champion Wrestler Loses To Foreigner For First Time

[Mulboyne]

[floatr][/floatr]AFP: Japan wrestler's winning streak ends after 119 matches
Japan's five-time world wrestling champion Saori Yoshida's winning streak has been brought to an end after 119 matches, ahead of her Olympic title defence in Beijing, press reports said Sunday. She lost to American Marcie Van Dusen 2-0 in the 55-kilogramme category at the women's freestyle wrestling World Cup team competition in Taiyuan, China, on Saturday... It was 25-year-old Yoshida's first defeat since losing to two-time world champion Seiko Yamamoto at the 2001 national championships. It was also her first loss in an international meet and marked the end of a 114-match winning streak against foreign competitors. "It went wrong because I thought I could surely win and took it easy," Yoshida said. "The biggest shock is that I was beaten for the first time in an international meet...I realised that I needed to train much more ahead of Beijing. I definitely want to triumph at the Beijing Olympics," she added...more...

[Behan]

Just my unsolicited two yen...

I don't think Japan has a right to feel too shocked about this. I don't know what it's like with women now but wrestling was a pretty popular school sport in the US. I don't think there is any comparison between the US and Japan in terms of percentage of the population who wrestle.
When I was in high school, wrestling was the second most popular winter sport for boys following basketball, except for maybe high schools that had hockey teams.
On a slightly different note, I think how well Japan's women's soccer team has done is pretty impressive when you consider how popular girl's soccer is here. Over fifteen years here, I have never seen a girls' soccer team. I'm sure there are university and some high school teams but there seem to be no girls teams. I guess they play with the boys when they are elementary school age.

[Mulboyne]

This isn't a case of Japan having a great record in women's wrestling which has suddenly been overturned by the US. Yoshida is simply an amazing wrestler who laid waste to international competition for years. The Japanese press has hinted that she had an injury which meant she would have pulled out of an individual competition but persevered because she was in a team event. She hasn't made any excuses for her loss, though, preferring to say that she was too complacent.

[Behan]

I agree, Mulboyne. They have dominated women's wrestling since it has been an Olympic sport and possibly before that,too. Japanese female wrestlers would have to lose many more times before being knocked off their throne.
I think it is even more impressive that they are so strong in it given that is not a very popular sport here.
I live in Chiba and there are probably some high school wrestling teams here but I have never heard of any. I see a lot of school kids on the trains and they often have their sport written on the bags they are carrying but I have never seen a wrestling one.
Of course, the wrestlers could get their training in clubs outside of school, too. I do know of one wrestling dojo(?) nearby but I don't know if it's an amateur style or pro-style place.

[emperor]

It's like Pop Idol... but no singing and it's in Italian... and what looks like rape and applause...