In Budapest, the 2025 edition of the IJF world championships is about to begin. 93 delegations are registered, each sending their best available judoka. Among them, collectively, held in their various trophy cabinets, are 98 world championship medals, just from the men and another 66 from the women. Between them there are 42 world titles in athletes’ pockets. There are the outliers such as the Abe siblings, with 4 world golds apiece, reducing the remaining overall number to 34, but even that 34 is a lot!
The category with the most medals from previous editions of the world championships is +100 kg, followed closely by the -81 kg men and then the -52 kg women. Therefore it could be argued that these will be the most fiercely contested groups. But do the number of Olympic medals held by athletes from those categories tell the same story? Yes is the answer, an emphatic yes! The +100 kg men’s category again tops the table with 2 gold, 2 silver and 4 bronze. At -81 it’s 2-1-5 and at -52 it is 2-3-2.
Statistics only give us so much information though and of course, only in hindsight. Perhaps the categories with fewer previous medallists are more open and can offer great surprises, new heroes, chances for younger athletes to begin building their CV, special moments, those in which a judoka finds their best self and realises their own potential.
No matter what the numbers are, they say different things to different people, they tell only part of a story and that story is being moved and extended, pages being written every day at the top level. This Budapest chapter promises much and we can’t wait to get started!