Nicolas Gill’s farewell to judo competition

Montreal’s Nicolas Gill will bid goodbye to competition next Sunday. Canada’s greatest judoka will be one of 32 invitees at the Kano Cup tournament in Tokyo, Japan. It will be Gill’s first competition since the last Olympics in Athens. «The tournament organizers contacted me and a few days before Christmas, I decided to accept their invitation as I realized that I could be in pretty good shape for such a competition», said Gill.

«I had not stop training completely, but I had somewhat slowed my judo training, so I had to pick up the pace during the last month».

Nicolas, now 32 years old, is at peace with his decision to retire, since over his career, he has won two Olympic medals, winning a bronze medal in 1992 and a silver medal in 2000. He also won three world championship medals.

«It was not an on-the-spur-of-the-moment decision. I had been thinking about retiring for a while. And after the last Olympics, it was pretty clear in my mind that I had come to the end of the road. I had in mind to take part in one more tournament and suddenly the Kano Cup invitation was there.

«I did not train in any special way. It’s not because it will be my last competition that my preparation will change. The truth is that I should not be more nervous than anytime before since I have competed in many tournaments, thinking it could be my last,» said a smiling Gill.

In 2003, Gill was a silver medallist at the Kano Cup tournament. Two years later, his goals are not the same now.

«It will be a trip, a last time to have fun while competing. I’m going there to have fun, like a Sunday game of golf with friends,» said Gill, as humorous as ever.

Not too many athletes are as easygoing and likeable as Nicolas is. Despite all his successes, nobody can call him conceited.

«As a youngster, I had two goals: a long career and to be among the best in the world for as long as I could. Having those goals and reaching them are, as I realized, two different things. I know that the Olympics medals mean a lot to me, but as I reflect on my career which lasted more than 15 years, I’m also very proud of it as a whole», said Gill.

What king of heritage does he hope to leave behind?
«I hope that I have left my mark on the sport. But I also hope that others will follow and pretty soon because I want judo to be written about in the sports pages, seen on TV and talked about on radio. Judo lives and dies with the success and setbacks of athletes. If our athletes do not succeed, judo will fade into oblivion,» said Gill on a realistic note.

Once the Kano Cup is over, Gill will resume his position of coach with the Canadian National Team. At the end of January, he will head a team of judokas who will compete in tournaments in Belgium, Hungary, Poland and Italy.

The 2005 Kano Cup tournament is an open competition.