From International Judo Federation:
Women: -57kg – Men: -73kg
The Rio 2016 Olympic Games delivered a day full of emotion and exhilarating judo as judo was the world’s leading trend on Twitter which was fuelled by the Olympic gold medal victory of Rio de Janeiro’s own Rafaela SILVA (BRA).
SILVA, who was her country’s first female world judo champion in 2013, earned Brazil’s first gold medal from any sport at their home Olympics with a herculean effort which had the crowd, the nation and indeed the world in euphoria.
Pan America Championships bronze medallist SILVA, 24, hails from the city’s Cidade de Deus favela and found her way into the sport through the Instituto Reação academy in Rocinha which was opened by Olympic bronze medallist Flavio CANTO (BRA) in 2000 as a centre for disadvantaged children to have access to academic studies and sport.
The inspirational story of SILVA was the subject of a special IJF film as the #JudoForTheWorld series visited Rio de Janeiro to share her road to the greatness and show how judo is truly #MoreThanASport.
World champion ONO Shohei (JPN), a protégé of 1984 Olympic champion HOSOKAWA Shinji, produced one of the most electrifying displays at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games so far as he won four of his five contests by ippon to delight the Japanese fans who turned out in their droves to witness the first judo gold medal for Japan at the Carioca Arena 2.
It was no surprise with such compelling stories, such inspirational characters and exceptional judo, along with the IJF’s early adoption and focus on social media, that judo was the number one trend in the world on Twitter for the second time in three days.
Judo was again the number one hit in the world as a global audience tuned in to see Brazil and Japan win their first gold medals on the tatami at Rio 2016.
Mr. Marius VIZER, IJF President, said: “It was another great day for judo at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. I want to congratulate all the medallists and all the athletes who took part today. I hope and I am confident that in the upcoming days we will again have beautiful judo and that our values will be respected. Today we have really seen amazing judo.”
14 countries have won a medal so far and six different countries have won gold at #JudoRio2016.
