The corona virus messed up the judo season so far and the build up towards the 2020 Olympic Games.
Athletes try their best to stay in shape and hold their rhythm but it’s improvising especially during the lockdown periods and simply hoping those times won’t return. In some areas restrictions are still applicable and locally even lockdowns. In the IJF World Judo Tour only three events took place which also disrupted the stats we liked to run to compare the best athletes, reports Judo Inside.
When looking to the expected medals over all sports the United States is expected to win the most medals overall at Tokyo in 2021. While Japan is expected to improve on its Rio 2016 medal total by over 50%. The United States and Japan are expected to perform best in the 44 new or returning Olympic events on the Tokyo 2021 programme including the Judo team event where Japan is highly favourite.
Tokyo 2020 host nation Japan won a record-breaking 41 medals at the Rio Olympics in 2016 the home of judo is projected to improve on that total by over 50%. In Judo Japan won only three gold medals which was slightly lower than expected, but a stunning twelve medals is still hugely impressive. The increase of 50% is simply not possible with just 15 judo events and already having a medal share of 85%, the men even had a 100% medal share, women 71% without a medal in U63kg and U78kg in 2016. Closing the gap with 14 medals and the gold in the team event is the ultimate goal. The gold in the men’s heavyweight category, the category of Teddy Riner, is the holy grail and since February even more an opportunity for the Japanese team.
Source: JUDOINSIDE.COM
