TEL AVIV — Let’s be honest, one of the gentlemen of the press said to Majlinda Kelmendi of Kosovo, the two-time world champion and 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games gold medalist who on Thursday had made easy work of the women’s under-52 category at this, the inaugural Tel Aviv Grand Prix.
Why, the gentleman inquired, are you here?
In this question there was not the least hint of disrespect.
Indeed, quite the opposite.
To bear witness to Kelmendi’s performance was to watch the return of the artist at work. It was also to thrill in anticipation of possibility.
In dominating the under-52 class for years, Kelmendi, now 27, has become a symbol of Kosovo, which declared independence in 2008.
Her Rio gold made her the first athlete to win a gold medal at the Olympic Games, or for that matter, a medal of any color, for Kosovo. She is the 2013 and 2014 world champion.
Since the Rio Olympics, however, Kelmendi has struggled with injury — back, left knee, fifth place at the 2017 world championships in Budapest. She did not compete at the 2018 worlds in Baku, Azerbaijan, which emphatically underscored the rise of a new star, Japan’s Uta Abe.
Just 18 years old, Uta Abe won at women’s under-52 the very same day as her 21-year-old brother, Hifumi Abe, won at men’s under-66. He is the 2017 world champion as well.
The 2017 world junior champion, Uta Abe had also that same year become the youngest-ever winner of an IJF World Tour event, winning the early-season Dusseldorf Grand Prix. In December 2017, she won the Tokyo Grand Slam.
In 2018, Uta Abe won Grand Slams in Paris in February and then in Osaka in November.
Uta Abe and Majlinda Kelmendi have not yet fought in competition.
Emphasis on yet. The 2019 world championships are in Tokyo. So, too, the 2020 Olympic Games. Logic suggests they may well meet sooner than later. The question is: when?
“She is amazing,” Kelmendi was saying Thursday of Uta Abe. “As we can see.”
She added a moment later in response to a look-way-ahead question about the Olympics, “I hope and I believe this will be the finals of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, so we will see.”
Of course the women’s under-52 category includes other world-class fighters as well, any of whom might also challenge for world and Olympic championships. Just to name two: Japan’s Ai Shishime, last year’s world silver medalist, and France’s Amandine Buchard Nordmeyer, the current world No. 1 and last year’s world bronze medalist.
Kelmendi returned to the IJF World Tour in late 2018. She took silver at the Abu Dhabi Grand Slam in October, gold in November at the Tashkent Grand Prix. Because of the layoff, she arrived in Tel Aviv holding the No. 15 ranking in the world standings.
A temporary blip.
So why here? There were any number of top-10 fighters on the Tel Aviv entry sheets. But only one Olympic champion: Majlinda Kelmendi.
For many years, Kelmendi has had friends here, and in particular the Israeli coach Shani Hershko. Beyond, there’s an obvious parallel between Israel and Kosovo:
“I think Israel and Kosovo have a similar story, I guess … not-so-big countries, not so [many] people living there, fighting all the time to be recognized and to be independent. I guess this is why we understand so [well] each other.”
If this meet in Tel Aviv was any indication, and assuming Kelmendi stays healthy, the scene at both the 2019 worlds and 2020 Games could be ridiculously good. Here was Kelmendi’s day Thursday:
First fight, against Tetiana Levytska-Shukvani of Georgia: 65 seconds, ippon.
Second fight, quarterfinals against Fabienne Kocher of Switzerland, who would go on to defeat Israeli teen sensation Geffen Primo for bronze: 54 seconds, ippon.
Third fight, semifinals against Andreea Chitu of Romania. This one actually went the distance before Kelmendi took her out with an ippon as well, 11 seconds into golden score.
Final, against Israel's Gili Cohen. The home crowd barely had time to start a rowdy “Gili!” chant. It said 36 seconds on the ringside clock, later recorded as 34 in the official scorers’ table, when Kelmendi took out Cohen, again by ippon.
“After a long time now with many injuries,” Kelmendi was saying, “I’m coming back. It’s not easy to get back to a routine. It’s coming. I’m feeling good. My judo is coming back, especially my technique. I don’t like to make judo just with shido or activity. I like to throw. I like to make attractive judo. It was good.”
So, she was asked, how good are you feeling? How would you rate yourself — 90-95 percent?
“Less,” she said. “Less, less, less. I still have a lot to do. Maybe today was a good day. I had good throws. I still have a lot to do to work on my judo, and I am doing this. I am not in my best shape. I know this. Until Europeans or the world championships, I won’t be 100 percent.”
Next up, she said, is the Dusseldorf Grand Slam Feb. 22-24. Abe is not registered for Paris Grand Slam two weeks earlier, Feb. 9-10; perhaps, though it would seem very, very early in the year, the two will match up for that first time in Germany.
After Dusseldorf, Kelmendi said, “I will see.”
Looking ahead and around, Majlinda Kelmendi had only respect for everyone and everything, and especially the way forward. “I am double world champion. I am Olympic champion. I have been at the Olympics before. I know what it takes. I know how to train. I know what to do. So I believe for the best. I don’t,” she said, “like to give strong words.”