"It's wonderful to be here in Portugal for this important event. It allows our delegation to meet so many different countries and cultures. It's very good for our athletes.
We came here with a delegation of three boys but our future objective is to bring girls as well. We are in the building phase of something great. We have already more than 3,000 girls practising judo in Saudi Arabia. We had female athletes participating in the London and Tokyo Olympic Games. Judo is present now for both boys and girls at school and university. The development is massive."
Indeed, the IJF Judo for Children Commission was recently present in Riyadh (https://www.ijf.org/news/show/grand-opening-of-the-saudi-judo-in-schools-programme) and programmes are developing at a steady pace in the country, allowing more and more people to practise the sport.
"Our delegation present in Portugal is learning a lot. Just by watching they can understand better judo and they will bring back home experience that will help to further develop the sport, especially among the youth.
In the future we will organise more training camps, more seminars and judo courses for athletes, coaches and referees so we will have more judoka participating in local and international competitions."
The vision is clear: Saudi Arabia is willing to play a significant role on the planet of judo. This goes from the school to the university level and beyond and this concerns everyone, without discrimination.