Lightweight (≤57 kilograms), Women

Canadian judokas Christa Deguchi and Jessica Klimkait were world ranked #1 and #2 in this class as of June 2024 but, unfortunately, only one of them could compete in this class at Paris 2024. The Canadians chose Deguchi, who was World Champion in 2019 and 2023. Klimkait was a defending bronze medalist but she would not compete at Paris.

France pinned their hopes on Sarah-Léonie Cysique, who had taken the silver medal in the class at Tokyo 2020 and won gold in the mixed team event, and also won three silvers at the Worlds since 2019. Kosovan Nora Gjakova had won gold at Paris but, in a huge upset, she was defeated in round one by Mongolia’s Lkhagvatogoogiin Enkhriilen, with Gjakova ruled out for non-combativity after three shidos at 5:17, in extra time.

In the quarter-finals, Deguchi had a first difficult match against Marica Perišić, whom she defeated in extra time by waza-ari, at 4:29, despite receiving two shidos in the first three minutes of the fight. In the second quarter-finals match, Cysique had beaten Japan’s Haruka Funakubo by ippon in only eight seconds! Deguchi’s semi-final against Cysique was a huge and long fight. After 6:19, in extra time, the two women had two shidos and the fight was very indecisive. Finally, at 8:49, after video review by the referees, Cysique was disqualified for inserting her fingers inside Deguchi’s judogi. Cysique’s disqualification was very controversial and was written above extensively in French newspapers.

Deguchi finally took the gold medal by defeating Korea’s Heo Mi-Mi in the final, after Heo was penalized in extra time at 6:35 for a third shido due to a false attack.

After her defeat in the semi-final, Cysique won a bronze medal by defeating Georgian Eteri Liparteliani, using sumi-otoshi to win by ippon in 1:49. The other bronze medal went to Funakubo. She had lost to Heo in the semis but defeated Brazilian Rafaela Silva to make the podium, after Silva was disqualified by hansuko-make at 9:06 in extra-time, for a forbidden “head dive” attack.