In Budapest just two days ago, ‘Susy’ Scutto took the final step of her run to the top of the senior world podium, throwing Kazakhstan’s Abiba Abuzhakynova for ippon in the -48 kg final. The emotional release was raw and inclusive, bringing every spectator into her joy, her relief. Scutto was now senior world champion and one of a tiny handful of judoka ever to amass an entire podium of medals, both bronzes and both finalists’ prizes.
“It has been a difficult period and so my emotion exploded in that moment. I knew I could do it! Last year I stopped at the second step and I didn’t want to feel that sensation again.”
Up against Shrine Boukli, France’s favourite, also a world and Olympic medallist and a 4-time European champion, the odds were not in Scutto’s favour. Their tally stood at 3-1 to Boukli ahead of their world championship semi-final.
“I lost too many fights with her, including at the Olympic Games, so for me she has been a giant to beat. After winning against that giant I was closer to the gold medal.” It was not just any win either, one of the most impressive throws of the tournament. It took Scutto just a minute, sixty seconds, to turn in and throw Boukli with an enormous ippon seoi-nage, as if demonstrating it; phenomenal!
“I didn’t think about that throw or that she could fall like this. I saw the ippon on the scoreboard with stars flashing around it and my coach screaming ‘ippon.’”
Susy’s coach is Antonio Ciano, not new to the experience of working with athletes at the highest level. He was with Alice Bellandi too, at the Olympic Games last summer. “Up to the age of 16 I was with Gianni Maddaloni in Naples, always with the background of Pino Maddaloni, Olympic champion. Then I went to a professional sports team, Fiamme Gialle, with the military police. There the coach is Antonio Ciano. Thanks to him I started to collect more and more experience. It’s thanks to him for this pathway we shared.
You know, I didn’t believe it when I first saw that I was number one in the rankings and now with this medal, this win against Boukli, after all the work we did, now I can’t believe it, all over again."
Susy is satisfied, happy and everything in between. She is young but she is also experienced and the lessons from judo just keep coming. Her message to any young judoka who wants to walk a similar road in judo is, “Don’t consider your limits and don’t stop in front of the giants who stand in front of you. If you want to be a giant you must beat them!”