Ghofran Khelifi to represent Tunisia at the Olympics

Ghofran Khelifi is set to represent Tunisia at the Tokyo Olympics. This follows her inclusion as the result of the continental quota. Ranked 27th with 2372 points, Khelifi would have narrowly missed out on qualification by four places. However, as a result of the quota she will now be the only North African to compete in Judo at the games in the U57kg category. Today she turned 23.

Khelifi will be in a confident mood in Tokyo, having achieved a few impressive gold medals during the past two years. In 2019 she won gold at the African Games in Rabat, alongside another gold at the African Championships in Capetown. This year, she won gold again at the African Championships, achieving gold in Dakar. Over the last weeks she’s been training hard and trained abroad such as a training camp in the Netherlands.

Historically, Tunisia have struggled to win medals. Over the years, they have achieved a total of 13 in various sports. However, Judo is not one of them. Having said this, Tunisia has once won a bronze medal in wrestling, which is also a grappling-based martial art. Nonetheless, Khelifi will be trying to make history and is a big underdog going into the Olympics. Tunisia does has a rich judo history and coach Anis Lounifi captured gold with the Tunisian team at the recent African Championships. He was the only world champion for his country and for Africa. Tunisia never medalled at Olympic Games level but in terms of Olympic performances, the women set the best results.

Khelifi will also be one of the youngest to compete in her category, only four athletes are younger. This could work for her with little pressure in terms of expectations. On the other hand, according to IJF rankings, there are still 26 Judoka's ahead of her which means “Ghofy” will have to perform well.

Facts:

• Yvonne Boenisch (GER) was 23 when she won the Olympic title in 2004
• Automne Pavia and Yurisleidis Lupetey were 23 when they won Olympic bronze
• Never an African athlete took a medal U57kg, only Soraya Haddad was the only female African medallist at the Games.
• Khelifi is a four time senior African Champion at the age of 22.