Half-Middleweight (≤63 kilograms), Women

Japan’s Ayumi Tanimoto was the defending gold medalist. Since Athina, she had placed second at the 2005 World Championships and third at the 2007 Worlds. The 2005 title had been won by France’s Lucie Décosse, who placed second in 2007 to the well-known Cuban international Driulys González. All three were considered contenders for the gold in Beijing but in the end it was all Tanimoto. She won all her matches by ippon, including the pool final over González and the class final over Décosse. She noted, “Winning games by ippon is my fighting style so I kept staying with it.” González went to the bronze medal match but lost to Elisabeth Willeboordse of the Netherlands, the 2005 European Champion. The other bronze went to Won Ok-Im of DPR Korea, whose only previous international medal had come at the 2006 Asian Games, a bronze.