Mitsuru Sato
Mitsuru Satō (Japanese佐藤 満, Satō Mitsuru; born December 21, 1961) is a former Japanese wrestler and Olympic champion in 1988 in free style flyweight.
Career
Mitsuru Satō began as a teenager in high school with the rings. Later he attended the Nippon Sport Science University in Tokyo, where he found a very good training conditions and coach. In 1981, he first drew attention to himself on the international stage wrestler when he student world flyweight champion in free style was in Bucharest.
1983 Satō disappointed at the Asian Championship in Tehran, when he was only on the 4th Place. Also for the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, he could not qualify. His first World Cup medal he won at the World Championships 1985 in Budapest, when he finished 3rd behind the superstar Valentin Yordanov of Bulgaria and the Soviet athletes Minatulla Daibow.
1986 won Satō at the Asian Games in Seoul flyweight title against the Iranian defending Yaghoob Najafi Jouybari. In the same year he was also runner-up behind the North Korean Kim Young Sik but before Valentin Yordanov in Budapest. Also in the 1987 World Championships in Clermont- Ferrand, he won a medal. He finished there the 3rd place behind his old rival Valentin Yordanov and Kim Young Sik.
The climax of the career of Mitsuru Satō were the 1988 Olympics in Seoul. After Valentin Yordanov had failed in the first round, his Olympic win was against the Olympic champion from 1984 Saban Trstena from Yugoslavia and the Soviet athlete Vladimir Togusow.
1989 and 1990 Satō paused on the international wrestling mat. The comeback, which he tried in 1991, he succeeded only halfway, because he won at the World Championships 1991 in Varna the 5th Place and arrived at the Olympic Games in Barcelona in 1992 to 6th place, respectively flyweight. As these placements his claims certainly were not enough, he took after the 1992 Olympics final farewell to the international wrestling mat.
He became a coach for wrestling at his home university.
International success
(OS = Olympic Games, WM = World Championship, F = free style, Fl = Flyweight, then to 52 kg body weight)