Judo at the 2012 Summer Olympics

The judo events were contested at the ExCeL Arena in the London Docklands area. ExCeL is short for Exhibition Centre London. It was the site of multiple sports at the 2012 Olympics, including all the combative sports (boxing, judo, taekwondo, wrestling), fencing, table tennis, and weightlifting. There was no change to the judo program in 2012, with both men and women contesting seven classes. A minor change to the scoring had occurred since the 2008 Olympics as the lowest scoring mark, the koka, had been eliminated making a yuko the lowest score attainable.

There was no single dominant judo nation in 2012. The Russian men won five medals and three golds, but no Russian woman made the podium. France’s women won five medals but on the distaff side, the seven events were won by seven different nations. Japan won only one women’s class, but tied France with seven medals in all.