The skills of a judoka are a sporting asset

Judo is getting more and more competition from other sports. The Olympic Games wasn’t exactly the advertisement judo was hoping for. The Olympic Games turned out to be an incomprehensible event where neither the athletes, coaches nor the crowd at home could understand the rules and penalties and no one could predict how some key matches would evolve. With new sports Judo will have to take simplicity serious.

Judo is not a sport where you have a starting point and a clear end like any time sports such as track and field or the successful and spectacular cycling track. With sports such as climbing, skateboarding and many other fighting sports such as Mixed martial arts the great potential of judo is affected.

Even in a time that YouTube stars take it up in the octagon to other athletes, boxers or any of the UFC picks we should wonder what is the next step in the sport entertainment world. The world is digital, the key is TV broadcasting or streaming services and spectacular sport in any way you can imagine. Sport and entertainment isn’t new though but not carried so massively by popular streams as nowadays. In the past there were plenty martial arts that wanted to take away the likes of the crowd in the venue or the bigger audience at home where spectators were looking forward to the next match between judoka vs a boxer or a boxing giant against a wrestler or judoka against fat and big sumo wrestlers.

Judoka turn into wrestlers

It’s not new that some of the bigger judoka turned into wrestlers or mixed martial arts. America judoka Sandra Bacher was one of the successful judoka in the states who changed from judoka into an Olympic wrestler and became World Wrestling Champion and represented the USA at various Olympic Games as a judoka and later wrestler where the competition was less severe as in judo.

We all know those stories from the past where judoka became doorman at the local bar to earn some real money or helped with criminal activities to impress some guys. Those were the old days. Now there’s much more money to pick up instead of being a doorman, now athletes wonder what is their ambition: take medals at world level? Or take money in other sports. Judo is simply too competitive and to become an athlete at world level is only for the elite and takes a lot of training and persistence while there is not much money involved. Taking medals is easier in less developed sports but booming martial arts such as Sambo, Karate, MMA with all those leagues you cannot count anymore. It doesn’t mean judo will lose its strong competition because the top will stay. Once they have a chance to make an earn out then it gets interesting what is the ambition of an athlete.

Teddy Riner asked by other sports

Teddy Riner was asked so many times and not just by martial arts that wanted to benefit of his world wide stature and reputation as the most successful judoka ever on the planet taking ten world titles and two individual Olympic gold medals, give in total including that illustrious gold medal with the French team on the last day of July this year. Riner was asked by rugby or American football leagues to make a step into their sport.

Not in the least the MMA is supported by a powerful fanbase marketed with a spectacular attendance when the individual athletes appear in the usually huge sports venues. With music and an impressive lightshow broadcasted in many countries or with pay-per-view streams the sport is a magnet to those who follow the money. Cage Championships, the Octogon or a ring it’s all one on one and the rules are pretty basic. The opponent has to submit or lose by a jury that is hopefully independent. In fact the same ingredients as judo. This is why judo has a lot to gain when it comes to selling the sport. Simplicity is the key so the bigger audience will understand what is going on. In the time of corona more and more events are streamed and judo have the abilities to broadcast it well on TV, get good summaries, show nice angles, top camera, 360 views and analyse on the spot what just happened. Judo will remain an Olympic sport in the next decade, but if nothing happens you just wonder what will be the consequence in Brisbane in 2032.

Why Paris 2024 is so important

In both Los Angeles in 2028 and Brisbane four years later the Olympic Games will be organized in countries where judo is little and almost none existent. Well… it’s only important at the Olympic Games or perhaps commonwealth Games, but even in the commonwealth games, in Gold Coast in 2018, close to Olympic city Brisbane judo was not even scheduled during the 2018 Commonwealth Games. This is exactly why in three years the Olympic Games in Paris shall be an advertisement for judo. Make it eternal, cherish the values, shape the rules, market it for TV, create heroes that transcend the sport like Teddy Riner or Tadahiro Nomura. Let’s hope we use those historic stars that used the skills of judo to give their sporting career in UFC or MMA a big boost, because we can all see that judo is the most competitive martial art of all, don’t fled but fight the competition. Teddy Riner is the perfect example.