Fascinating interview with Christa Deguchi who is the reigning world champion at -57kg. Interesting to hear her say that she hated judo for the longest time and even today it doesn't seem like she really likes it. She just does it and obviously she does it very well. What a nice and humble champion.
Been doing judo over 20 yrs. and always concerned about weight. Life of a judoka. Japanese judoka representing Canada.
Yeah I think weight is too consuming to atheletes. It really doesn't always make a difference for some people.
I should add I met Christa at the 2019 Montreal Grand Prix and she was every bit as nice of an athlete in person. She has obviously worked hard to improve her English as evident in this interview. I’m pretty sure she still lives in Japan and I don’t know how much time she actually spends in Canada.
Next weight is tuff to complete unless ou are top caliber player. Especially the lower weight Marginal players get out physicaled and potential injuries.
judoblackbelt -Next weight is tuff to complete unless ou are top caliber player. Especially the lower weight Marginal players get out physicaled and potential injuries.
Very true. Nekoda Davis who is a 2x world championship medalist (2017,2018) at -57kg competed at -63kg one time in 2017 and went 2-2. Fabio Basile who is the 2016 Olympic champion at -66kg is now fighting at -73kg and even though he does well at that weight he is not as dominant. Even the unstoppable Clarisse Agbegnenou got thrown for ippon when she competed a weight up at the world championship team event. One reason that Bilodid has stayed at -48kg even though her natural weight is probably closer to -52kg.
When you look at weight range for example - 81k mens(161 lbs-178 lbs) and many of those guys are cutting weight to make 178lbs at the top end. Then take a guy like Nick Delpopolo who struggked to make -73k(160 lbs max.) and is now tryhing to compete in -81k with marginal judo skills. You are going to get beat up and physically injured. Nick got head planted with a tai otoshi in his last fight.
Watch what happens at the 3:00 mark of the video. Look how exhausted Nick is during the match.Even Travis got beat up at times in -81k.
Travis told me people get caught up with weight but he said to us "we can't go below 8% body fat because you need to be able to take throws. Kayla said she never worried about that much.
Outkaster -Travis told me people get caught up with weight but we can't " go below 8% body fat because you need to make throws. Kayla said she never worried about that much.
Kayla reportedly walks around at 160-165 and her judo weight division of -78kg spans 154-172 pounds so I don’t think she had much to worry about.
judoblackbelt -Next weight is tuff to complete unless ou are top caliber player. Especially the lower weight Marginal players get out physicaled and potential injuries.
In a recent interview Daria Bilodid stated that she drops about 3kg (6-7 pounds) to make weight in the -48kg division.
That's insane to be under 106 lbs. Kayla always had mazimum energy in her matches. And I don't think Travis would of did to well in -90K. Can you imagine Travis having to fight Beka from Georgia? Or Iliadis from Greece? Did anyone watch NIck's match I posted to see how much difficulty he is having at -81k?
judoblackbelt -That's insane to be under 106 lbs. Kayla always had mazimum energy in her matches. And I don't think Travis would of did to well in -90K. Can you imagine Travis having to fight Beka from Georgia? Or Iliadis from Greece? Did anyone watch NIck's match I posted to see how much difficulty he is having at -81k?
Yeah, I remember watching Nick's match live. To his credit he continued the match after taking that throw but you could tell he was not the same.
He was close to retirement when I talked with him in 2017.
With the sad death of Hatton it opend up -81k. I don't think his body can holdup to the pounding in -81k. Especialliy switching the Olympics to 2021.
Yes probably not. That makes sense.