#development

Uruguay hosts pair of Coaches Courses, Introduction to Refereeing

Thursday, November 17, 2022 - 17:23 By United World Wrestling Press

Share this article

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay (November 11) --- Keeping with the series of UWW courses that are taking place in the American continent, on this occasion was the time of Montevideo from November 1 to 7. The courses were: Coaches Course Level 1 and Level 2 and Introduction to Refereeing. A total of 31 participants took part in the course. The majority of the coaches were from Uruguay, but there also were participants from six other countries.

This course is part of the UWW's education program, and the purpose is to provide the coaches with tools to strengthen their professional work. The course consisted of several sessions between theoretical and practical, structured in such a way that what was learned in the classroom was applied on the mat.

This course was made with the support of the Olympic Solidarity, the Uruguayan Olympic Committee, and the Uruguayan Wrestling Federation.

URUParticipants from the Uruguay courses gather for a photo. (Photo: United World Wrestling)

All the activities were held in the brand-new Combat Sports Training Center, founded in 2019, with two mats and a classroom that makes it easy to take the course.

The opening ceremony was held on November 2 and was attended by distinguished personalities such as the President of the National Olympic Committee, Julio C. MAGLIONE, the National Secretary of Sports, Sebastián BAUZÁ and the President of the Uruguay Wrestling Federation, Dante STEFANO.

We had the educators Pedro ROJAS (PUR) for the coaches and Ignacio D'Alessandro (ARG) for the referees. 

"We are very pleased with the outcome of the course. We found a group of participants with a basic level of knowledge of the sport but who were willing to learn and make the most of the concepts and tools provided. We had five days of very fruitful work, and we went back home knowing that we had left the bases for Uruguay to start implementing a successful development program. We want to come back in a while to help them take it to the next level". say Ignacio D’Alessandro, Referee Educator.

The Uruguayan Wrestling Federation is starting to work very hard in the development of the sport in its country. And from the UWW, we hope to continue working in this way with them and accompany them in their growth and institutional strengthening.

#JapanWrestling

Paris Olympic Champ Sakurai Retires at Age 24

Sunday, April 5, 2026 - 09:12 By Ken Marantz

Share this article

TOKYO (April 4) -- Having never really regained the motivation that led her to achieve her ultimate goal of an Olympic gold, Tsugumi SAKURAI (JPN) has decided to retire at the tender age of 24.

Sakurai, the women’s 57kg champion at the Paris Olympics, has announced that she will hang up her singlet and begin a second career nurturing a new generation of wrestlers and serving as a goodwill ambassador of sports for her native Kochi Prefecture in western Japan.

“After 21 continuous years, I feel I have reached the cutoff point of my wrestling career, so I have decided to retire,” Sakurai said at a press conference Friday at the Kochi Prefecture government office.

“I gave everything I had for the Olympics, and I was able to experience the feeling of achievement and the ultimate joy. It's difficult to win the Olympics without determination. I couldn't get back to the mindset I had before Paris. That is the biggest reason [for retiring].”

Known for her steely aggressiveness belying a quiet demeanor, and a wicked use of a 2-on-1 arm bar, Sakurai prefaced her triumph in Paris by winning three consecutive world titles, at 55kg in 2021 and back-to-back golds at 57kg in 2022 and 2023.

A U17 world champion in 2016, she won golds at the Asian Championships and Asian Games in 2022 and 2023, respectively, but suffered the second of just two career international losses at the 2024 Asian Championships, where she fell to Yongxian FENG (CHN) in the final.

She bounced back five months later for her crowning achievement in Paris, where she defeated 2016 Rio Olympic champion Helen MAROULIS (USA) 10-4 in the semifinals, then took the gold with a 6-0 victory over Anastasia NICHITA (MDA) in a rematch of the 2023 world final.

Making the win in Paris even more special was the fact that not only did Sakurai strike gold, but so did another Japanese wrestler who started the sport together with her at the kids wrestling club in Kochi run by her father.

Kotaro KIYOOKA (JPN), the freestyle 65kg champion in his Olympic debut, and Sakurai became the toast of Kochi, a rural prefecture fronting the Pacific on the island of Shikoku. They were paraded through the streets of the prefectural capital of Kochi City and hailed as heroes.

Like almost all of Japan’s medalists in Paris, the two took time off from the sport to run the gauntlet of TV interviews and variety shows, and just chill out in general. Sakurai, who returned to Kochi and started graduate studies in sport sciences at Kochi University, was particularly slow in returning to the mat.

In what would prove to be her first – and last – competition after Paris, she won the 57kg title at the second-tier Japan Women’s Open in October 2025, ostensibly to qualify for the Emperor’s Cup All-Japan Championships the following December. That would be the starting point for domestic qualifying for major global tournaments.

But Sakurai never made it to the Emperor’s Cup, and has now fully turned the corner on a new career.

“Over the past year, this decision was made after talking to many people, fretting about it, and thinking things through,” she said.

Sakurai said that as an extension of her father’s Kochi Wrestling Club, she wants to run a series of clinics outside of the city, mainly in her hometown of Konan just to the east of Kochi, to expose more children to wrestling and help it grow.

“Aside from wrestling, I'm learning so many things in graduate school right now, so I want to acquire a wide range of knowledge so that I can give back to Kochi Prefecture properly,” Sakurai said. “I think there will be various problems when I put things into practice, so I want to acquire solid knowledge so that I can solve those problems.”

Fans at this week’s Asian Championships in Bishkek will see another product of the Kochi Wrestling Club in action in Moe KIYOOKA (JPN), Kotaro’s younger sister and a former world champion who will be looking to add the 53kg gold to the one she won at 55kg in 2024. She and Sakurai were also teammates at Ikuei University.

And the name Sakurai might soon be appearing on the world stage again. Her younger sister, Tsukino SAKURAI (JPN), won the Asian U15 title last year.