THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
July 29, 2024 at 07:30 JST
Japan's Hifumi Abe celebrates after defeating Brazil's Willian Lima during their men -66 kg final match in team judo competition at Champ-de-Mars Arena during the 2024 Summer Olympics on July 28 in Paris. (AP Photo)
PARIS--Right after Hifumi Abe violently threw his final opponent to the tatami and secured his second Olympic judo gold medal, he stood up and looked directly at his sister crying in the stands at the Champ-de-Mars Arena.
The Abe siblings' dream of winning gold medals for Japan on the same day in their second straight Olympics ended early on Sunday. Uta Abe, a four-time world champion who hadn't lost in five years, was beaten in her second bout in Paris by eventual gold medalist Diyora Keldiyorova of Uzbekistan in a mind-boggling upset.
But her big brother had her back.
Hifumi Abe made sure this first family of judo will head home with at least one more gold to add to a collection that still might not be complete.
“My sister lost today, so it was a really hard day for me, but I had the feeling all day that I had to work hard for my sister,” Hifumi Abe said through an interpreter. “It was difficult and painful. But I kept my emotions in check, and I felt I had no choice but to do my best as the older brother."
Hifumi Abe defeated Willian Lima of Brazil in the men's 66-kilogram final, but the double victory the Abe siblings had chased for three years didn't happen.
They both won gold on the same day in their home Tokyo Olympics, and both won world championships in each of the two years since 2021.
They missed their chance to go home from the Paris Games with another matching set of medals when Keldiyorova surprised Abe, who was leading 1-0, with a tani otoshi throw for a spectacular ippon 3:04 into their match.
“She executed a great technique," Uta Abe told Japanese media much later. “I was thrown without having an instant to react.”
Uta Abe was disconsolate for hours. Neither sibling had been beaten in any competition since 2019, and it was only the 24-year-old Uta's second loss since 2016.
After standing up with her hands on her temples in utter disbelief, she struggled to leave the tatami before kneeling and weeping in the arms of her coach for at least three minutes. Her sorrow delayed the next match in the women's 52-kilogram category, which she has dominated for years.
Many minutes later, her sobbing could be heard from dozens of yards outside the tent where she was gathering herself outside the arena.
“I couldn’t calm myself down when I lost since I’ve thought about the Olympics so much and done so much for this particular day,” Uta Abe said. “I scored first, and I think I rushed to finish the match.”
The Abe siblings are huge celebrities in Japan and in the judo world with their photogenic smiles and uncommonly demonstrative personalities, but Uta's loss was devastating to both the family and its millions of fans.
Hifumi Abe was shaken but not deterred.
His first match ended in 59 seconds with a vicious ippon of Bence Pongracz of Hungary, and he fought through a bloody nose to reach the semifinals an hour later with another ippon victory over Nurali Emomali of Tajikistan, who badly injured his left arm while attempting to break his fall.
Hifumi Abe got his toughest test from top-ranked Denis Vieru of Moldova in the semifinals, but he won with a brilliant harai goshi hip sweep 9 seconds into golden score.
In the final, Hifumi Abe gradually broke down Lima. He scored on a waza ari with 2:12 left in the match before ending it with an impressive throw with 1:24 left.
Japan's vaunted judo team won nine gold medals and 12 total medals in this Japanese-born sport three years ago at its home Olympics.
The team is so good that winning two gold medals from four events so far in Paris qualifies as a rocky start.
Natsumi Tsunoda won gold on Saturday in the women's 48-kilogram category, but Ryuju Nagayama settled for bronze in men's 60-kilogram after a controversial loss to Francisco Garrigos of Spain.
Tsunoda was the last person to beat Uta Abe by ippon before Sunday. The veteran did it in the final of the Tokyo Grand Slam in 2016 with an arm lock on the 16-year-old prodigy.
Keldiyorova went on to complete one of the most difficult gold-medal runs in Olympic judo history, beating France's own Amandine Buchard before edging a second Tokyo gold medalist — Distria Krasniqi of Kosovo — in the final.
“She gave me a tough fight, and I know she is a champion,” Keldiyorova said through an interpreter. “I just had to fight and try to win, but I respect her so much.”
The Abe siblings' Olympic journey isn't over: Both said they would like to keep competing until the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028. Tadahiro Nomura currently is the only three-time individual Olympic judo gold medalist.
“I’ll try my best to become even stronger at judo,” Hifumi Abe said.