The first Olympic Games in South America
The Rio 2016 Olympic Games judo competition was held from Saturday 6 – Friday 12 August at the Carioca Arena 2.
Seven-Day Event
Two categories were contested on each day (one men, one women), moving from the lightweights to the heavyweights with a morning session featuring the preliminaries and the second session featuring the semi-finals, repechage and all the medal contests.
Huge participation
The judo competition had very high participation with 389 judoka from 136 nations converging in Rio. Of that lot, 366 had qualified while 20 were "universality placed athletes", two were from the Refugee Olympic Team and 1 was Syrian. London 2012 had 135 countries and 387 athletes participating.
Judo’s flagbearers
Teddy Riner was chosen to be France’s flagbearer for the Rio 2016 opening ceremony. He will lead France’s 396 athletes into the Maracanã Stadium on the eve of the start of the judo competition (6 August). Riner is the third French judoka to act as flagbearer at the Olympic Games Angelo Parisi (Los Angeles 1984) and David Douillet (Sydney 2000). Judokas will also be flagbearers for Algeria, Ecuador, Georgia and Kosovo.
Refugee Olympic Team
For the first time ever, a Refugee Olympic Team (ROT) competed in the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. For judo, two Congo-born players competed under the IOC flag: Popole MISENGA (-90kg) and Yolande BUKASA (-70kg), who both now resides in Rio de Janeiro and train at Flavio Canto’s famed Institute for disadvantaged young people. Both judoka competed on the fifth day of the competition (Wednesday, 10 August) and were coached by Geraldo Bernades, who was serving in his fourth Olympics.