The first day of the World Judo Championships Cadets, the Baluan Sholak Sport Hall in Almaty looks like an anthill. It is a perennial movement, an anarchic circus in which judoka, coaches, security personnel, volunteers and officers of the International Federation and the Federation of Kazakhstan live together. It looks like a ballet with different choreographies and asymmetric paths. However, all roads lead to the same place, the tatami.
They will fight, to settle forces, to see, finally, after two years of preparation, who are the best. In the access tunnel there is a drastic change. The faces stop smiling, the muscles contract, one can breathe concentration and seriousness. And then that glow appears, intense, contagious. It is the brightness of the competition, the brightness of those who are willing to face their destinies.
The bell rings, the judoka go to the tatami. The coaches take their seat. The contests begin. Some end in a few seconds. Others do not, some even reach the golden score. When everything is over, winners and losers return to the center of the anthill, to analyze and digest what happened. Victory, defeat, everything matters and emotions clash. They are young and most of them have to learn to assume both good and bad. Learning the reason for things and drawing positive conclusions is the most important part for young warriors to apply judiciously the values transmitted by judo inside and outside the tatami. It is the most important lesson of their lives.
There are those who understand immediately, like the American Luchia Torro. Eliminated in the first round after three minutes of golden score, Torro walks through the venue analyzing what happened and observing around it. “It has been a good fight, intense and long. I have learned many things”, she explains.
Torro has traveled from Los Angeles, that is, she has spent more hours on a plane than in Kazakhstan. However, her brief passage through the World Championships has been a resounding experience that will help her in the future. It hasn't been a trip in vain, at all. And, when she leaves, already rested and relaxed, she still has that special glow in her eyes, the brightness of those who, in one way or another, have overcome.