PARIS — In judo, matches begin in the morning and the medals come out at night, after the vanquished have gone.
And it all happens in one glorious or brutal day, depending on your circumstance.
Some athletes emerge from the elimination round of 32 but are beaten in 16, some make it into the quarter-finals or repêchage and fall in the semi-finals as the sun starts to fade; so tantalizingly close, but no cigar.
For others, it can be over in an instant.
“It was so quick,” Canadian judoka Kelly Deguchi said of her loss by Ippon in the first round on Sunday. “It is still morning.”
In the harsh light of day, Deguchi’s reality fell well and painfully short of the Olympic dream. In a match that could have lasted as long as four minutes, or even reached overtime if the score was tied, Deguchi went just 57 seconds with the reigning world and Olympic champion, Uta Abe of Japan, before landing on her back with the sickening thud that told her it was over.
A loss by Ippon is instantaneous. It’s like a knockout punch in boxing, an overtime goal in hockey. In her Olympic debut, the 25-year-old spent less than two minutes on the field of play. She was introduced to raucous applause from the Canadians on hand. She bounded up and down three times, pounded her chest, took her place on Mat 2, bowed to her opponent, and was staring at the ceiling of the Champ-de-Mars Arena less than a minute later.
Goodness.
It was shocking for its brevity, less so for the fact that Abe has the championship pedigree and has slammed more than a few opponents onto their backs.
“When I saw the draw, I feel like, OK, my first match is a world champion,” said Deguchi. “I’m sad I lost, but I did my best to come here and I did my best today, so I’m happy. I’m not happy, but I don’t feel that bad.”
Deguchi was born and raised, and still lives and works in Japan, and is naturally more comfortable communicating in Japanese. In a post-match interview in the mixed zone, she apologized for struggling in English, and switched to her mother tongue to answer questions from a few Japanese reporters, one of whom asked how it felt to take on the world champion for the first time.
“Well, I thought the world champion is strong. I thought she was strong,” Deguchi said. “But I’ve been working so hard to get to the Olympics. I was strong. And, well, I did my best to the end. It’s frustrating that I lost. But it was a good experience. It was a good experience for me to grow.”
She was asked what she thought about Abe’s plan of attack.
“She threw me twice in a few seconds. I made a good counter-measure. There are many things I should have done differently. But I didn’t feel like I was losing. I think I can praise myself for that.”
This was not an easy Games for Deguchi, who dropped down three years ago to -52kg from her more natural and comfortable -57kg class. That’s because her older sister Christa fights at -57kg, and there is not room in the draw for two fighters of the same gender in the same weight class, from the same country. There isn’t really room in the same family, either.
In a 2023 interview with IJF.org, Kelly said she didn’t want to spend her career being Christa’s “travelling, non-competing training partner.”
Christa is three years older and far more accomplished at this point. She competed as a youngster for Japan, then made the switch in 2014 to fight for Canada, her eligibility stemming from the fact that their father Tom Taylor was born in Winnipeg. Christa then sat out the world governing body’s mandatory two-year waiting period for switching allegiance, then became the first Canadian woman to win a medal at the world judo championships, taking bronze in 2018. She has since added two golds and a silver at the worlds, and her trophy case is positively bursting. The 28-year-old is expected to go deep into the draw here, perhaps all the way into the night and onto the podium.
“I want my sister to enjoy the Olympics,” Kelly said Sunday. “I don’t care if she wins or loses. I would be happy if she wins the medal. But before that, I want her to enjoy the Olympics and judo.”
She said they support each other emotionally.
“When I’m down, she can pull me up. When she is down, I can pull her up.”
There have been more ups for Christa, more downs for Kelly, and it hasn’t been an easy road for the younger, less accomplished Deguchi.
“Yes, it’s really hard to be Christa’s sister,” Kelly told IJF.org in 2023. “I’m so happy with Christa’s results and medals, but when she has good results and I have lost, I do feel it and it can be hard to be positive. In that situation, I usually have a hard couple of days and then I’m ready to be more in control again. I can keep my head up.”
She told IJF.org that she has worked hard on her mental approach in an effort to fend off self-doubt and a debilitating sense of frustration.
“I didn’t get results yet, but I feel like I’m a permanent challenger with nothing to lose, so I will keep going for it and doing my best. I lost a lot of contests and have no gold medal on the WJT and I have this sort of frustration, one that is only with myself. It is part of my competitiveness and in some ways it drives me to try more things and find a new step to get stronger. There is a word in Japanese for this feeling but we can’t translate it: kuyashii. It’s like an awful feeling of personal frustration.”
She has worked with a sport psychologist and is determined to develop belief in her abilities. She will need all that positivity to get through the next couple of days, and she will need her sister. But first, Christa has to get ready to compete.
“She needs to cut weight,” said Kelly. “I will keep her alone. Maybe when she finishes her fight, we will have alcohol together.”