Japan has dominated the international scene for a decade. It has a lot of raw material and an abundance of talent but that is where the danger lies. You have to know how to manage a fortune so as not to go bankrupt and the secret of Japan is work and competition at the highest level before going abroad. It's a bit like the United States in swimming or Kenya and Ethiopia in distance running. There are so many candidates for everything that the most difficult thing is to reserve a place in the starting team and keep it. Then, once your national status is established, at least for a while, you have to go out and beat everyone with a different passport. No, being a Japanese judoka is not easy and it is not a guarantee of gold either.
With more than a hundred accumulated medals, more than fifty gold, Japan far exceeds any hint of adversity. Their athletes have been the best, especially at important moments and the substitutes, the members of the second and third rows, have had notable roles. It can be said that, until Paris 2024, Japan is assured of a calm and non-turbulent trip, although it would be advisable not to be overconfident to avoid an emergency landing, as happened in London 2012.
France is the eternal contender, which means perseverance and frustration. It is the country with the most graduates in the world and has a solid tradition in our sport. In recent years, the competitive capacity of the French has been kept up thanks to a prodigious women's team, while the men were going through an evident stage of decline. Overreliance on Teddy Riner, injuries, bad luck and a few mistakes have relegated the men to supporting roles while the women shone in the hands of Clarisse Agbégnénou, Madeleine Malonga and Amandine Buchard. However, France has managed to make a generational transition with the appearance of some youngsters hungry for glory. Their names are Dicko, Boukli, Djalo, Cysique and Fontaine, to name just a few. They are young, some already champions and with many years ahead of them. Being second in a row, like Raymond Poulidor in the Tour de France, can generate frustration but it is also a source of pride, especially when you have to say goodbye to the representatives of so many glorious afternoons and carefully polish the new diamonds.
France has added, more or less, half the medals of Japan, which indicates the gap between them but since everything is relative in life, you can have a glass half empty or half full. The difference is, for the moment, considerable, but less than a few years ago. Let everyone draw their own conclusions.
The small one closes the march, by extension and size of the budget. It is no longer a baby but an adult, a robust and fearsome country in judo matters and for that it has even more merit because its population does not reach six million. Georgia has signed off on an exceptional season with a dozen medals less than France. Georgians are that neighbourhood that nobody wants to go through. Regardless of the results, the most resounding success of the federation has been to strengthen a women's team, which was the weak point of the Georgian school. The figurehead is Eteri Liparteliani and her example has helped her teammates understand that it is possible to win. There is still a long way to go but the foundations have been laid and are solid.
This trio is the image of judo. There is work, talent and hardness, there is a desire to excel, to do better, to take nothing for granted. This trio should be a source of inspiration for those countries eager to upend the established order. They have travelled the path to the top and do not want to go down because things look better from above. It is the others who have to escalate, perform the same tasks and evict them from there. We know that there are ambitions and the desire to do it, which is why 2023 promises to be a very interesting year.
