Paralympic judo referees announced officially by IJF

The referees of the Paralympic Games in Tokyo have been announced by the IJF and were sent to the national Federations. Among the twelve referees one lady, Ioana Babiuc of Romania, much less than the Olympic Games where 5 women were chosen in a selection of 16 referees.

Janos Tardos, technical delegate for judo at the Paralympic Games, said, “A few years ago the IJF and IBSA (International Blind Sports Federation) signed a Memorandum of Understanding to work together across several sectors, including refereeing matters. The refereeing commissions of the IJF and IBSA have been working hand in hand for a long time and we were able to select a list of referees that we can be proud of. We will have the best referees possible for our event.”

“Refereeing at the Paralympics is a little different from refereeing at the Olympic Games. The judo rules are of course exactly the same but our referees need special knowledge for working with visually impaired athletes effectively and sometimes also deaf people athletes.”

“With full support of the IJF, its president, Mr. Marius Vizer and the IJF Refereeing Commission, we have selected the best referees for Tokyo. We still have two qualification events to take place before the Paralympic Games and our group of referees will be there, ready."

The average age of the paraplympic referees is 48 varying from 40 to 57 years of age.

Official List of Referees for the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games

Mrs. Ioana BABIUC (ROU)

Roland POIGER (AUT)

Artur FANDO (BLR)

Jefferson Da ROCHA VIERA (BRA)

Olivier DESROSES (FRA)

Viktor HAVASI (HUN)

Hiroyuki HIRANO (JPN)

Jhon RAMAEKERS (NED)

Vassily SMOLIN (RUS)

Nedim BAYAT (TUR)

Greg MOORE (USA)

Vyacheslav PERETEYKO (UZB)

The Paralympics will take place 24 Aug until 5 Sep, the Olympic Games judo tournament will start at 24 July in the Budokan in Tokyo.