Siblings in judo, Megan and Ben Fletcher debut for Ireland

Siblings Megan and Ben Fletcher have been confirmed as Team Ireland's participants in Judo at the Tokyo Olympics. The 2020 Games will be the first time Ireland will be represented in both the male and female Judo events.

The Fletcher siblings will take part in the Nippon Budokan on 28–29 July. Their selection marks the final Irish athletes confirmed for Tokyo 2020, with a record 116 Team Ireland members announced.

siblings at the Olympic Games judo tournament

The Irish siblings are not unique. In Japan the siblings Uta and Hifumi Abe compete. The brothers Frey from Germany and the siblings Gjakova from Kosovo. In the past the Japanese Nakamura brothers were famous judoka as well as the Spanish brothers Uematsu and Japanese sisters Yoshie and Masae Ueno. Russians Bashir and Sharip Varaev. From Australia Nathan and Joshua have competed and their mother Kerrye Katz as well as well as some of the ‘Hill’ family. Japan Olympic Committee boss Yasuhiro Yamashita won gold at the 1984 Olympics, his daughter took bronze in 2000 in Sydney. Swedish Robin and Martin Pacek competed at the 2016 Olympics. Ben Fletcher will be appearing at his second Olympics after competing at Rio 2016 for Great Britain in the men's 100kg category. He switched to representing Ireland in 2017. Megan Fletcher will be appearing at her first Olympics and will compete in the 70kg category.

Megan: "Being selected for the Olympics means the absolute worlds to me. I am so proud to have made the Irish team and to be flying the flag at my first Games. It has been such a long road to this point, and I couldn't be more excited to get over to Tokyo and fight now."

Team Ireland Judo team leader Ciaran Ward added that the selection of two Judoka for the first time marked a "watershed" moment as they prepare to compete in the homeland of the sport.

"This is a watershed moment for us in Irish Judo, it's the first time we have qualified two athletes since global qualification started," he said.

"It’s a generation since we had this size of a team and it’s the first time we have had both men and women represented at the Olympics, so it’s a first for Irish Judo, and we are very proud of both of them.

"Judo is the national sport in Japan, and is the sport that produces most medals for them normally at the Olympic Games. They are the benchmark that we all try to achieve. Usually in Japan there’s a full stadium of spectators who all know their sport, which will be different this time around."