Japan’s Gold Medal Tally Up to Record 18 at Paris Olympics; Haruka Kitaguchi Wins 1st Athletics Gold for Japanese Women

The Yomiuri Shimbun

16:13 JST, August 11, 2024

PARIS — Japan’s gold medal tally rose to 18 at the Paris Olympics on Saturday, bringing its overall medal count to 43. Both figures are the highest ever for Japan at an overseas Games.

Haruka Kitaguchi won the women’s javelin throw, making her the first Japanese woman to secure a gold medal in track and field. Her longest throw in the final was 65.80 meters.

Sakura Motoki likewise won the women’s 62-kg freestyle wrestling final, defeating Iryna Koliadenko of Ukraine and giving Japan its record sixth gold medal in wrestling.

Japanese wrestlers won five golds at the Tokyo Olympics in 1964 and again at the 2021 Tokyo Games.

Daichi Takatani took silver in the men’s 74-kilogram freestyle wrestling, losing in the final to Razambek Salambekovitch Jamalov of Uzbekistan.

Seventeen-year-old high schooler Rikuto Tamai snared silver in the men’s 10-meter platform diving, becoming Japan’s first diver to win an Olympic medal.

Taishu Sato also secured a first for Japan — the nation’s first medal in modern pentathlon — when he bagged silver behind Ahmed Elgendy of Egypt.

In women’s table tennis, the Japanese team of Hina Hayata, Miu Hirano and Miwa Harimoto earned silver after losing to China 0-3.