"I have been in judo almost all my life. So far, mainly as an athlete and now as a national coach. Actually switching from one to the other was a big change, the biggest of my judoka life, I might say. When you are an athlete, you are self-centred but now as I am in charge of athletes, I have to think of them and this is a 24/7 job. I have to think of their wellbeing and their objectives all the time. I must say that I do enjoy it.
Talking about women’s judo, I see a lot of improvement, especially in the most recent years. Women's judo has really risen. There is no difference between men and women in judo and that is really something special about our sport. As athletes, we are all receiving the same prize money, we have the same number of weight divisions. In training camps, when there are two training sessions for men, there are two for women as well. Differences between a -60kg and +100kg judoka are visible just like between men and women; in other words it all comes down to a personal approach. The content is adapted to everyone so it’s nothing to to with gender.
At the very beginning of my coaching career, I felt more comfortable dealing with female competitors but to be honest I don't see any difference anymore. I work with men and women the same way. Actually to be true, I adapt to the personal needs and not to the gender. My own coach used to say, ‘judo is judo no matter what’ and I agree. It is all about the relationship you have with your athletes. It is about honesty. As a coach you need to care and therefore work with everyone.
From a personal point of view, I am at the very beginning of my career as a coach, so I still need to learn a lot. I never ever felt any gender discrimination from the other coaches or athletes due to being a woman. The only thing I know is that there are coaches with experience and others with less experience. I am part of the latter, so I am here to learn and improve."
To learn and improve, this is the way every judoka embraces the moment they step on the tatami for the first time. Being a woman does not now preclude or exclude and this is what we love about judo.