article by Nicola Pucci
Maysince judo was admitted to the Olympic Games, that is to say from the Tokyo edition of 1964, precisely in honor of the organizing country, the case had occurred that Japan did not even win a gold in the various weight categories of the men’s sector, a circumstance which, conversely, materialized at the 2012 London Olympics.
And, to add to the dose, there is the fact that supremacy becomes the prerogative of two neighboring countries, namely Russia which wins three golds with Galstyan in the super light, Isaev in the light and Chajbulaev (who combines Olympic gold at the 2009 Tbilisi European Championship and at the 2011 World Cup in Paris) in the light heavyweight, and the bitter rival South Korea, which climbs to the top step of the podium with the average weight Son Dae-Nam and, above all, with the light medium Kim Jae-bum, who crowns a phenomenal career in London, competing in the weight category reserved for -81 kg.
After winning numerous titles at the Asian Championships, Kim turns 23 at the 2008 Beijing Games, winning silver after being defeated in the final by the 2005 European champion, the German Ole Bischofwith whom he shares the lowest step of the podium at the 2009 World Championships in Rotterdam the following year.
After these two placings, the Korean finally reaches the gold medal at the Tokyo World Championships in 2010where he overtakes the idol of the house Takamutsu in the semifinals and then beats the Brazilian Leandro Guilheiro in the final scoring a waza-ari thanks to ouchi-gari in the extra-time, confirming the title at the 2011 World Cup in Paris where, after having “avenged”By Bischof in the round of 16, has the better of Frenchman Loic Pietri in the semifinals and therefore defeats the Montenegrin Srdan Mrvaljevic in the final act.
With these credentials, Kim shows up on the tatami of theExCeL Exhibition Centre of London like one of the logical favorites for the race that takes place in a single day, on July 31, and in which he qualifies for the semifinals after overcoming, in order, the Uzbek Imamov, the Hungarian Csoknyai and the Argentine Lucentiwhile the silvers of the last two world championships leave the competition early, Mrvaljevic, defeated by the Canadian Valois-Fortier, in turn beaten by the Russian Nifontov in the quarters, where the adventure of Leandro Guilheiro also ends, overtaken by the American Travis Stevens, while the last semifinalist is the reigning Olympic champion Ole Bischof, who has the better of the Japanese Takahiro Nakai.
With the possibility, therefore, of witnessing the repetition of the Olympic final four years earlier in Beijing 2008, such an eventuality materializes with the successes of Bischof over Stevens and Kim over Nifontov and, in the final challenge, the Korean reaffirms his superiority on the German judokascoring a decisive waza-ari that he manages to protect until the end of the fight, finally being able to add Olympic gold to an extraordinary career. A true judo champion.
