Judo at the Olympics
Judo is a discipline that’s been around for thousands of years and has a long and rich history in Japan. This year’s games will feature mixed team events and nation versus nation bouts. In the first round, the nation that wins by four points or more advances to the next round. In case of a tie, a refight will be held.
Mixed doubles
Judo mixed doubles is a brand-new team event at the Olympic Games. The competition is made up of seven weight categories for both men and women. In the -57kg weight class, three men and three women competed to win the gold medal. The winner was Riner, who beat Aaron Wolf in sudden-death overtime.
The event was first held at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, and was won by Team Japan. France took the last three silver medals. The medals were presented by Yasuhiro Yamashita, IOC member from Japan, and IJF President Marius L Vizer of Austria.
Ono Shohei
In the men’s lightweight division, Ono became Japan’s third lightweight champion in four years. He beat double World Champion Wang Ki-chun in the Round of 64. Ono dominated his opponent by earning ippon with back to back waza-ari throws. The Japanese champion will now face South Korea’s An Chang Rim in the semifinals.
Shohei Ono is a native of Yamaguchi, Japan. He won the men’s under-73 kilogram division at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics. He is regarded as the strongest judoka of the generation and is the first Japanese male to win multiple gold medals in this division.
Lukas Krpalek
Lukas Krpalek is a Czech Judo competitor. He won his first senior Grand Prix in Bucharest in June 2009. Later that year he competed at his first World Judo Championship in Rotterdam. However, in his first round match, he lost to Cyrille Maret. After that, he reached the finals of the Junior European Judo Championships in 2010, but lost to Elmar Gasimov. Nevertheless, he was still the world junior champion.
Krpalek competed in the 2012 Summer Olympics. In the previous year, he suffered a knee injury and was unable to compete at the European Judo Championships. However, he returned to the competition with a Grand Prix victory. In 2013, he beat Belgium’s Zafar Machmadov in the European Championships. In his Olympic campaign, he faced several heavyweight Judo competitors and finished 7th.
Gabriella Nelson-Levy
Israel’s Gabriella Nelson-Levy is among the country’s judokas competing at the Olympics. The judoka, who is under the age of 26, began her martial arts career at the age of six, trying her hand at jujitsu and mixed martial arts. By the time she was 13, she had settled on judo. From a young age, she dreamed of competing at the Olympics. Last month, she arrived in Tokyo for her first Olympic Games. Though she fell in her quarterfinal match, she finished seventh overall, which was a good performance for her first Olympic competition. The other Israeli judokas, including the men’s team, also finished out of medal contention.
Another Israeli judoka is Avishag Semberg. She won a bronze medal at the Olympics and was awarded NIS 250,000 by the Israeli Olympic Committee. The other members of the judo delegation in Israel were each given a similar amount. While some Israeli athletes have multiple high-dollar sponsors, others struggle to make ends meet.
