Aleksanyan is one of only 11 wrestlers to have won four Olympic medals․ He is already in an elite campaign, but was in Paris in search of his second gold. 

The wrestler failed to score from the par-terre position in the first round. So did Saravi in the second, but the score was 1-1 and the Iranian was ahead on criteria. 

Aleksanyan, trying to get a point to take the lead, went forward and was caught on the counter-attack. Saravi took his opponent down to score two more points and then received another because of the Armenian’s unsuccessful challenge, winning the match 4-1.

It was the wrestlers' fourth meeting and Saravi's first victory. The Iranian added gold to his Tokyo 2020 bronze, while Rio 2016 champion Aleksanyan is now a two-time silver medallist. The 2023 champion Gabriel Rosillo Kindelan of Cuba and Kyrgyzstan's Rustam Dzhuzupbekov took bronze in the -97kg category.

Nao Kusaka secured Japan's second gold medal in Greco-Roman wrestling, following Kenichiro Fumita's triumph in the -60kg category. Kusaka, the favorite in the 77 kg final, faced Kazakhstan's Demeu Zhadrayev, who had made headlines with his impressive victories in the preliminary rounds. 

Kusaka had previously defeated two-time European champion Malkhas Amoyan (Armenia), while Zhadrayev had shocked reigning world champion and Tokyo 2020 silver medallist Akzhol Makhmudov (Kyrgyzstan). Despite Zhadrayev's strong performance, Kusaka's dominance in 2024 was evident as he confidently won the final 5-2.

Amoyan and Makhmudov both won their bronze medal bouts, despite falling short of their gold medal aspirations. At 25 years old, this is Amoyan’s first Olympic medal, while Makhmudov, also 25, is now a double Olympic medallist.

In the women’s -50kg category, USA’s Sarah Hildebrandt claimed victory over Cuba’s Yusneylis Guzman. Guzman reached the final after India's Vinesh Phogat, who had defeated her in the semifinals, failed to make weight before the final match.

Vinesh had also defeated Japan's Yui Susaki, a wrestler who had never lost at international level, and was favourite for gold in the final, but instead she goes home without a medal, while Hildebrandt added a gold to her Olympic medal collection, which also includes a bronze from Tokyo 2020. The bronze medals went to Susaki and China's Ziqi Feng.

Semi-finals

The preliminaries of the last two Greco-Roman categories produced some surprises. In the men's -67kg category, Iran's Saeid Esmaili defeated reigning world and Tokyo 2020 -60kg champion Luis Orta (Cuba) in the quarter-finals and then survived scary moments in the semi-finals when his opponent Slavik Galstyan (Armenia) was awarded the win by touche. 

However, the judges overturned the decision and the match resumed with the Iranian leading 7-0. He eventually won 10-4 to book his place in the final, where he will meet Parviz Nasibov of Ukraine, the returning silver medallist from Tokyo 2020. Nasibov defeated Azerbaijani hopeful and world number one Hasrat Jafarov 3-3 in a tight semi-final.

Another Iranian, Alireza Mohmadipiani, stunned Zhan Belenyuk of Ukraine, the Tokyo 2020 gold medallist in the men's -87kg category. Belenyuk's long-time teammate and opponent Sergey Novikov, a former Ukrainian who now represents Bulgaria, defeated Hungary's David Losonczi in the other semi-final.

In the women's -53kg category, Ecuador's Lucia Yepez defeated Germany's Annika Wendle to set up a gold medal clash with two-time world champion Akari Fujinami of Japan.