Review Olympic Games Judo Tournament with new medal record

The Olympic Games Games Judo Tournament has come to an end with Japan leading the medal table as expected, however the Asian countries were expected to dominate much more. Instead the European nations built out the number of titles to eight compared to seven in London. Pan America was able to capture three titles, same number as Asia.

France was the second nations with a tremendous sprint at the last day by Riner and Andeol adding two gold medals making five in total. Russia succeeded in being again among the best nations with two titles in the men’s categories: Beslan Mudranov and Khasan Khalmurzaev. One of the most spectacular victories, of not the most, was Italy’s Fabio Basile who splashed the tournament with his freshness and audacity in winning the U66kg title. Japanese Shohei Ono showed the way to the beautiful Japanese judo in fashion, having a total control over his opponents from beginning till the end of the competition. Baker doubled the lead for Japan with a second gold and Haruka Tachimoto added a third title.

Also the victory of Paula Pareto for Argentina was spectacular after her world title in 2015, comparable to Tina Trstenjak of Slovenia U63kg. Slovenia was doing extremely well with three medals in total for the small nation. At the second day Majlinda Kelmendi set her nation Kosovo on fire with an excellent victory in the women’s U52kg division, in a final against another Italian Odette Giuffrida. Kelmendi won the first medal ever for Kosovo, recognised in 2012 by the IJF, Kosovo was recognised by the IOC in 2014.

Host nation Brazil won gold at the third day by Rafaela Silva. It was the first medal for Brazil where more was expected. The heavy expectations for especially the women’s team in judo to help Brazil in the top 10 of the overall ranking was not easy. Mayra Aguiar and Rafael Silva added bronze making a total of three.

At day 6 Kayla Harrison won the gold medal and was the first woman to prolong her title of 2012, an amazing performance with impact in the US. Speaking about impact, the gold for Lukas Krpalek was not just a surprise for Czech Republic, also for himself and a gift for judo having a great new champion in a super strong category. For sure some judoka will be elected sportsman of the year in their countries as their performance had such an impact on their nation.

IJF President IJF Vizer witnessed a fantastic event over the whole week: "136 delegations and 390 participating athletes, it was already a record. We beat a second record with 26 countries on the podium. I'm happy for our sport.“