Rio 2016: Olympic wrestling preview day 4: Women’s Freestyle 48kg, 58kg & 69kg

We’ll begin this preview of Day 4 as we will all future previews, with a link back to our Olympics Wrestling primer, which has a cheat sheet and live stream details.

Also a note that wrestling brackets are random draw and uneven. You can check out the brackets from the 2015 World Championship and the European Olympic Qualification Tournament to give you a better idea of what the Rio brackets will look like.

All to the point that picking place finishers before the weigh-ins are completed and brackets are released (which happens the day before the tournament) is a fool’s errand. Which is perhaps why I find it so much fun.

Women’s Freestyle 48kg

PICKS

GOLD: Eri Tosaka JPN

SILVER: Mariya Stadnik AZE

BRONZE: Carolina Castillo COL

BRONZE: Patricia Bermudez ARG

CONTENDERS

Some people say this is the deepest women’s weight class. Others, (me), say, when in doubt, pick the Japanese wrestler. Azerbaijan’s Stadnik will be looking for a gold to complete the Olympic trifecta, having won silver in London and bronze in Beijing. Neither Castillo nor Bermudez have the pedigrees of our hypothetical finalists but they will (theoretically) benefit from home continent advantage.

OTHERS OF NOTE

Yana Sun from China has a win over Tosaka earlier this year. Elitsa Tankova from Bulgaria is a former junior level champion. Haley Augello is making her senior Team USA debut and has the ability to do some damage in Rio.

RANKINGS

1 AZE Mariya STADNIK

2 CHN Yanan SUN

3 JPN Eri TOSAKA

4 KAZ Zhuldyz ESHIMOVA

6 ARG Patricia BERMUDEZ

7 ROU Emilia VUC

8 BUL Elitsa YANKOVA

9 COL Carolina CASTILLO

10 CAN Jasmine MIAN

12 NED Jessica BLASZKA

13 PRK HyonGyong …

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