Four-time Olympic gold medal-winning wrestler Kaori Icho was awarded the People's Honor Award by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Thursday.
Icho, who became the first woman ever to win four successive individual Olympic golds when she beat Russia's Koblova Zholobova to claim the 58-kg freestyle title at the Rio Games in August, received a certificate, a plaque and a gold kimono belt at a ceremony at Abe's office.
"After receiving the certificate, the plaque and the belt, the prestige of the People's Honor Award really started to sink in," the 32-year-old Icho, wearing a purple kimono, told reporters at the World Forum on Sport and Culture at a Tokyo hotel later in the day.
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