Heavyweight (>78 kilograms), Women

Japan’s Akira Sone was the gold medalist at Tokyo 2020 and was looking to become the first woman to defend a gold medal in this class. She was World Champion in 2019 and 2023. France’s Romane Dicko won bronze in the class at Tokyo, was the World Champion in 2022, and had won European titles in 2018, 2020, 2022, and 2023. Another contender was Brazilian Beatriz Souza, who had five gold medals in this event at the Pan American Championships, including the last four consecutively (2021-24).

Sone was upset in the quarter-finals by Turkey’s Kayra Özdemir, who used kami-shiho-gatame to win by waza-ari in extra time at 5:48. Souza defeated Dicko in the semi-finals by ippon, using kesa-gatame in extra time, and advanced to the final against Israeli Raz Hershko, bronze medalist at the 2023 World Championships, who quickly beat Özdemir by ippon at 0:14 in the other semi-final. Souza won the gold, defeating Hershko by waza-ari at 0:44, using o-soto-guruma.

The bronze medals went to Dicko and Korean Kim Ha-Yun, both winning their bronze medal matches by ippon. Dicko repeated her bronze medal performance to win the fifth medal in this class for France, while Kim’s medal was only the second in the class for Korea, after a bronze in 2000 by Kim Seon-Yeong.