is a Japanese wrestler. She is a two-time gold medalist at the

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a vari ...

, a three-time gold medalist at the

World Wrestling Championships The World Wrestling Championships are the Amateur Wrestling World Championships organized by United World Wrestling. The Men's Greco-Roman Wrestling tournament began in 1904, and the Men's Freestyle Wrestling tournament began in 1951. The Women's ...

and a four-time gold medalist at the Asian Wrestling Championships. She finished second at the

2015 World Wrestling Championships The 2015 UWW World Wrestling Championships were the 12th edition of World Wrestling Championships of combined events and was held from September 7 to 12 in Las Vegas, United States. Medal table Team ranking Medal summary Men's freestyle M ...

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

and represented her country at the 2016 Summer Olympics winning a gold medal by defeating Maria Mamashuk of Belarus 3-0. She celebrated her Olympic gold medal victory by delivering two fireman's carry takedowns to her coach (Kazuhito Sakae). Kawai's Olympic gold medal was one of four won by Japan's women's wrestling team at the 2016 Rio games. In 2021, Kawai won the gold medal in the 57 kg wrestling division at the Tokyo Olympics. Her younger sister Yukako won gold in the 62 kg division the previous day.

Championships and accomplishments

* ''

Tokyo Sports is a Japanese daily sports newspaper founded in 1960. See also * Tokyo Sports Film Award * Tokyo Sports Puroresu Awards The are Japanese professional wrestling, or ''puroresu'', awards that have been handed out by the ''Tokyo Sports'' ma ...

'' ** Wrestling Special Award (2016, 2017)

References

External links

* * * * 1994 births Living people Japanese female sport wrestlers Wrestlers at the 2016 Summer Olympics Wrestlers at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic wrestlers for Japan Olympic gold medalists for Japan Olympic medalists in wrestling Medalists at the 2016 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2020 Summer Olympics Wrestlers at the 2018 Asian Games Asian Games medalists in wrestling Asian Games bronze medalists for Japan Medalists at the 2018 Asian Games World Wrestling Championships medalists Asian Wrestling Championships medalists 21st-century Japanese women {{Japan-wrestling-bio-stub