Shoko Yoshimura

Yoshimura aspired to be a professional wrestler when she was at Seijo Gakuen High School because she admired the Crush Gals (Chigusa Nagayo and Lioness Asuka).^[4] In 1986, She auditioned for Professional Wrestling, but was turned away because she was too short at 153 cm.^[5] At that time, she was invited by former world champion Tomiaki Fukuda, which led her to start Amateur Wrestling instead of professional wrestling.^[4][5] In 1987, she entered Seijo University.^[1] That year, she competed and placed third at the first Women's World Championships in Oslo, Norway, in the 44kg weight class.^[1][2] She won the 1989 World Wrestling Championships for the first time, followed by the 1990 World Wrestling Championships.^[1][2] She also won three consecutive World Championships from 1993 to 1995.^[1][2] She then had a period of time away from wrestling due to a knee injury, but continued to wrestle until 2004.^[1][2] In 2009, she was inducted into the UWW (then FILA) Hall of Fame and has coached the Japanese women's national team since then.^[2][3][6] Among others, she has personally coached Yui Susaki since she was 13 years old, who won the gold medal in the 50kg weight class at the Tokyo Olympics.^[3]

• Shoko Yoshimura at the International Wrestling Database
• Shoko Yoshimura Blog
• Wintarts Shoko Yoshimura