Women’s wrestling to cap competition at Tokyo Olympics

FILE – Bulgaria’s Taybe Mustafa Yusein (blue) and Japan’s Yukako Kawai (red) compete during the final of women’s freestyle wrestling -62kg category at the World Wrestling Championships in Budapest, Hungary on October 25, 2018. (Photo by ATTILA KISBENEDEK / AFP)

TOKYO — The wrestling tournament at the Tokyo Olympics will end with a women’s freestyle gold medal match during six of the seven days of competition in various weight classes.

The Tokyo Organizing Committee announced the move on Tuesday, saying it will help ensure “high attendance” for each day of the tournament. The International Olympic Committee will likely appreciate the move, after it briefly booted the sport in 2013 in part because of concerns over gender equity.

Japan has been the dominant nation in women’s wrestling since it started at the 2004 Athens Olympics. The Japanese have won 11 of the 18 gold medals at the last three Olympics.

United World Wrestling president Nenad Lalovic noted the good crowds at the 2016 Rio Games and expects this schedule “will help us reach even more fans and create a positive and energetic environment for all our competitors.”

The Greco-Roman discipline will begin Aug. 2, followed by women’s and men’s freestyle. Women don’t wrestle Greco-Roman.

United World Wrestling is the international governing body, headquartered in Switzerland.