In six years Driton Kuka has made huge steps for Kosovo

Driton Kuka is a legend coach in Kosovo. A former judoka, Kuka was robbed of his Olympic dream in 1992 by the bloody collapse of federal Yugoslavia and never had the honour of representing Kosovo, which declared independence from Serbia in 2008, internationally. Today in 2014 Kosovo was recognized by the IOC as Olympic participating country.

Instead, he built a dojo in his home in the western Kosovo city of Peja/Pec, close to the border with Montenegro, and became the driving force behind the emergence of a cluster of world-class judokas from the city.

All five on the team due to compete in Tokyo are from the same neighbourhood. They still train in Kuka’s basement dojo, where Kuka has coached them to medals on the European and world stage every year for the past seven years.

Kuka hopes his close-knit team will have the strength to survive the challenge posed by the COVID-19 pandemic to sport as a whole.

“Maybe it will be easier to keep my team together, since we live in the same city, same neighborhood, more or less,” he said. “But that’s just the start of it. Everything else is much more complicated now. Nothing will be the same.”

The 2020 Olympics were expected to be Kelmendi’s last. The 29-year-old is one of the most decorated judokas of her generation, having won World and European Championship gold medals, Grand Slam titles and the World Judoka of the Year Prize.

The 2020 Olympics was meant to bring a rematch between Kelmendi and the teenage Japanese judo sensation Uta Abe, after Abe won their first encounter in the semi-finals of the 2019 World Championships, also in Tokyo.

Her triumph in Rio established Kelmendi as a national hero in Kosovo.

Kuka said the pandemic had proved a major challenge, from mental health to fitness.

“Judo is a specific sport and one mistake can cost you an injury and sideline you for months,” he said.

“I’ve been in touch with coaches from all over Europe. We became great friends via Skype, although we were big competitors when facing each other.”

“It’s funny when you think about it, really. But we were talking to each other every day and comparing notes about practices and drills during quarantine and isolation.

Kuka said his German counterparts had provided advice on a fitness regime during the limbo period waiting for the next competition.

“The rest is mental training and injury prevention,” he said. “I am applying bits of that model with my team as we speak”.