Rei Higuchi

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.^[1] He won a silver medal in the 57 kg division at the 2016 Olympics.^[2][3] He won the gold medal in the 61 kg event at the 2022 World Wrestling Championships held in Belgrade, Serbia.^[4]

Rei Higuchi

Higuchi at the 2016 Summer Olympics
Personal information
Birth name	樋口黎
Nationality	Japan
Born	(1996-01-28) January 28, 1996 (age 29) Japan
Height	163 cm (5 ft 4 in)
Sport
Country	Japan
Sport	Wrestling
Weight class	61 kg
Event	Freestyle
Club	Nippon Sport Science University;Tokyo
Coached by	Kenichi Yumoto Kazuhito Sakae Takahiro Wada
Achievements and titles
Olympic finals	(2016) (2024)
World finals	(2022) (2023)
Regional finals	(2022)
Medal record Men's freestyle wrestling Representing  Japan Olympic Games 2024 Paris 57 kg 2016 Rio de Janeiro 57 kg World Championships 2022 Belgrade 61 kg 2023 Belgrade 57 kg Asian Championships 2022 Ulaanbaatar 61 kg 2017 New Delhi 61 kg Grand Prix 2024 Budapest 57 kg 2017 Krasnoyarsk 61 kg 2016 Spala 57 kg 2016 Skopje 61 kg 2015 Ulaanbaatar 57 kg 2015 Ulan-Ude 61 kg World U23 Championships 2018 Bucharest 65 kg

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.^[5]

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.^[6] 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.^[7] In Paris 2024, he won the gold medal against Spencer Lee of the United States.