Kaori Icho

Olympic wrestler

伊調馨 · 伊调馨 · 이초 가오리

Born

13 June 1984, Hachinohe

Citizenship

Japan

Sport

wrestling, freestyle wrestling

Occupation

amateur wrestler

Height

166 cm (5 ft 5 in)

Weight

61 kg (134 lb)

Kaori Icho (Japanese: 伊調 馨, Hepburn: Ichō Kaori; born 13 June 1984) is a Japanese freestyle wrestler. She is a ten-time World Champion and four-time Olympic Champion, winning gold in 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2016. Icho was undefeated between 2003 and 2016. On 29 January 2016 at the Golden Grand Prix Ivan Yarygin 2016 Icho lost to Pürevdorjiin Orkhon of Mongolia. This was her first loss after a long domination.

She is the first female in any sport to win individual-event gold at four consecutive Olympics.

On October 20, 2016, she was awarded the People's Honour Award by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for her achievements, the second wrestler to receive the highest award, after Saori Yoshida in 2012. She is the younger sister of Chiharu Icho.

Competitions

Awards and honours

• Medal with Purple Ribbon 2004
• Kikuchi Kan Prize 2012
• People's Honour Award 2016

External links

• Wikipedia
• Wikidata

Facts from Wikidata Q233460 (CC0); quoted introduction from English Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Data retrieved 2026-10-22.

Data: Wikidata (CC0 1.0); Wikipedia (English) (CC BY-SA 4.0). Retrieved 2026-10-22.