Olympic History: Judo
Developed by Dr. Jigoro Kano in the early 1880s as a gentler alternative to the dangerous martial arts, judo traces back to the hand-to-hand combat of Japanese samurai warriors.
Meaning "soft way," the sport uses strict training to employ specialized principles of movement, balance and leverage to defeat an opponent. The competitors, or "judokas," score points by throwing an opponent to the mat, immobilizing an opponent, applying arm bars or choking an opponent.
In the original version of the sport, breakdowns by weight class were not employed. The theory was that size didn't play a factor considering the key principles of judo were timing and balance, not brute strength.
However, that theory changed in 1961 when a 6-foot-6, 253-pound fighter won the world championships by crushing three smaller opponents in consecutive rounds. Judo today takes place in seven weight classes.
Men's judo first appeared as an Olympic sport in the 1964 Games. And after spending the 1968 Games off the programs, has appeared in every Olympics since 1972.
COMPETITION
Women's judo was added to the Olympic programme in 1992. Men and women now compete in seven weight classes each, and 400 judoka competed at the Sydney 2000 Games. Men's contests last five minutes. Women's contests last four.
Judoka compete in a single-elimination tournament after being divided into two pools by a draw. An unusual twist is that two bronze medals are awarded. To determine them, all judoka who lose to one of the two pools' semi-finalists fall into a further single-elimination bracket within the same groups. The winner in each of those groups faces the runner-up of the opposite group in the matches for bronze.
LIST OF EVENTS *
• + 100kg (heavyweight) Men
•- 60 kg Men
• 60 - 66kg (half-lightweight) Men
• 66 - 73kg (lightweight) Men
• 73 - 81kg (half-middleweight) Men
• 81 - 90kg (middleweight) Men
• 90 - 100kg (half-heavyweight) Men
• + 78kg (heavyweight) Women
Olympic Judo
Zenbu Judo Club
Olympic Park & Terrey Hills