Lightweight (≤57 kilograms), Women

At the Rio Olympics, women’s judo events provided some interesting and touching stories. The day after Majlinda Kelmendi won the first gold medal for Kosovo, the young country torn by ethnic rivalries, Rafaela Silva finally gained host country Brazil’s first gold medal, in the 57 kg class. But the main story behind Silva were her origins in the notorious favela (slum) Cidade de Deus (City of God) in Rio. It was there that the 2004 Olympic bronze medalist Flávio Canto founded a martial arts school which was to turn Silva into the world’s top judoka in her class. The 24-year-old was not really a surprise victor as she was the 2013 World Champion and a two-time gold medalist at the Pan American Games. However, prior to the Olympics she had dropped to 14 in the rankings. Silva had competed in London 2012 where she was disqualified for an illegal leg grab against Hedvig Karakas of Hungary. In Rio the two met again in the quarter-finals. This time, Silva scored a Waza-ari (half point) after 1:50 min, which proved to be sufficient to advance to the semi-final. After beating the second seed, Korean Kim Jan-Di, earlier in the tournament, in the final Silva faced the top-seeded Asian Champion Dorjsurengiin Sumiya. Again, an early Waza-ari for a Sumi-otoshi (corner drop) was decisive in winning gold.

Bronze medals went to Telma Monteiro of Portugal, a five-time European Champion, and Kaori Matsumoto of Japan, the reigning Olympic and World Champion. Both were defeated by Sumiya in the quarter-finals and semi-finals, respectively, of the elimination round.