Three weight classes got one step closer to gold medals in freestyle wrestling Friday in Paris.

Women’s freestyle 62kg eliminations/quarterfinals

Kayla Colleen Miracle of the U.S. bested Turkiye's Nesrin Bas in the elimination round, 4-1, but went on to fall in the quarterfinals to the top seed in the weight class, Kyrgyzstan’s Aisuluu Tynybekova, 3-1. Tynybekova is the reigning world champion and took silver at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Men’s freestyle 74kg eliminations/quarterfinals

American Kyle Dake did not cede a single point on his way to the 74kg semifinals. 

Dake beat Venezuela’s Anthony Montero Chirinos, 4-0, in the Round of 16, and then steamrolled Yones Emamichoghaei of Iran, 11-1, in the quarterfinals.

Men’s freestyle 125kg eliminations/quarterfinals

No. 3 seed Mason Parris of the U.S. suffered a surprise exit in the Round of 16 to Mongolia's Lkhagvagerel Munkhtur, 3-1. Iran's Amir Zare, the top-seeded competitor in the weight class, easily advanced to the semifinals: In the Round of 16, he won 3-0 win over Kyrgyzstan’s Aiaal Lazarev. He subsequently defeated Canada’s Amar Dhesi 4-0.

Men's freestyle 57kg final

GOLD: Rei Higuchi (JPN)

SILVER: Spencer Lee  (USA)

BRONZE: Aman Sehrawat (IND)

BRONZE: Gulomjon Abdullaev (UZB)

Pennsylvania's 25-year-old Spencer Lee and 28-year-old Rei Higuchi of Japan fought a compelling, tense match at the Champ de Mars Arena in which the opponents were evenly matched -- and locked at a 2-2 score with just a minute on the clock. 

The Japanese wrestler held a tiebreak advantage, forcing Lee to try a last-ditch move. Higuchi successfully evaded and capitalized on, upping the final score to 4-2 and securing gold.

Eight years ago, a fresh-faced Higuchi earned 57kg silver at the 2016 Rio Olympics. He failed to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics after missing weight, but ultimately wrestled his way to the top on his sport's biggest stage.

Lee also missed the Tokyo Games, due to injury. The American's long path to the Paris Olympics -- his debut Games -- included three torn ACLs and multiple trial tournament wins. 

Hopefully, he'll manage one last step to top the podium three years from now -- in his home country, at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.

MATCH STATS

Men's freestyle 86kg final

GOLD: Magomed Ramazanov (BUL)
SILVER: Hassan Yazdani (IRI)
BRONZE: Aaron Brooks (USA)
BRONZE: Dauren Kurugliev (GRC)

En route to winning gold at his debut Olympics, Bulgaria's Magomed Ramazanov defeated bronze medalist Aaron Brooks of the United States as well as Yazdani, widely considered the favorite at these Games. 

The 29-year-old Yazdani won gold at the Rio 2016 Olympics, then took silver in Tokyo after falling to USA's David Taylor in the finals. In his semifinal against his American opponent in Paris, Aaron Brooks, the Iranian flipped the script with just five seconds on the clock. He went into the bout as the favorite, but an arm injury made it nearly impossible for him to continue. After several medical timeouts, he eventually conceded.

MATCH STATS

Women's freestyle 57kg final

GOLD: Tsugumi Sakurai (JPN)

SILVER: Anastasia Nichita (MDA)

BRONZE: Helen Maroulis (USA)

BRONZE: Hong Kexin (CHN)

Have you been counting? 

Tsugumi Sakurai's 57kg medal marks the fifth wrestling gold for Japan at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Having won back-to-back gold medals at the 2022 and 2023 AIBA World Boxing Championships, she was the favorite in France -- handily defeating her Gold Medal Match opponent, Anastasia Nichita of Moldova, 6-0.

In her Bronze Medal Match, Team USA's Helen Maroulis seemed particularly primed after a painful semifinal defeat on Thursday: She pinned Canadian Hannah Taylor in 24 seconds, locking down her third Olympic medal (following Rio 2016 gold and Tokyo 2020 bronze). 

Be sure to check NBCOlympics.com for all wrestling-related news, videos, and updates. Our wrestling schedule page provides up-to-date information. All matches can be streamed live on the site, as well as Peacock.