Half-Heavyweight (≤100 kilograms), Men

Aaron Wolf, born of a Japanese father and American mother, hoped to defend his gold medal in this class, but was not favored. He would lose in the quarter-finals and then go out in the repêchage. The favorite was Ilia Sulamanidze, who was world ranked #1 by the International Judo Federation coming into Paris. He had won four IJF Grand Slams since 2022, was bronze medalist at 100 kg at the 2021 World Championships, and had won silver medals at the 2023 and 2024 European Championships. Also considered a medal favorite was Uzbekistan’s Muzaffarbek Turoboyev, the 2022 World Champion, who had won the 2023 Asian Games title and the 2024 Asian Championships. He also won an IJF Grand Slam earlier in 2024 and was world ranked #2.

Sulamanidze made it to the final, but Turoboyev was upset in the semi-finals by Azerbaijan’s Zelym Kotsoiev. Kotsoiev then won the gold medal when Sulamanidze received a third shido for grip avoidance at 3:52. Born in North Ossetia, in Russia, Kotsoiev represented Ukraine in international events at junior level before switching allegiance and representing Azerbaijan from 2015.

Peter Paltchik (ISR) had lost his quarter-final to Kotsoiev, but advanced via repêchage to the bronze medal match where he defeated Switzerland’s Daniel Eich. Paltchik was born in Crimea but moved to Israel as a baby. In the second bronze medal match, Turoboyev defeated Spain’s Nikoloz Sherazadishvili after 1:53. Sherazadishvili was born in Georgia but moved to Spain with his family in 2010 and gained Spanish citizenship in 2014.