Half-Heavyweight (≤72 kilograms), Women

Kim Mi-Jeong (KOR) had won the 1991 World Championships. But the class was missing women’s judo greatest practitioner, Belgium’s Ingrid Berghmans. Berghmans had won this class at the 1984 and 1989 World Championships, and was runner-up in 1982, 1986, and 1987. In the open class, she was World Champion in 1980, 1982, 1984, and 1986, and runner-up in 1987. She also won six European titles – three in this class (1985, 1988, 1989) and three in the open class (1983, 1987, 1988). Berghmans was named Belgian Sportswoman of the Year eight times in the 1980s. She had competed at the 1988 judo demonstration event in Seoul, winning this division easily, but she retired after the 1989 season and was not in Barcelona to grace the Olympic tatamis with her presence. In her absence, Kim Mi-Jeong won the gold medal easily, defeating Japan’s Yoko Tanabe in the final, as she had at the 1991 Worlds. Kim would win a bronze at the 1993 Worlds, and then won the gold medal at the 1994 Asian Games, retiring after that competition.