After a grueling year since she and her older brother won judo gold medals at the Tokyo Olympics, 22-year-old Uta Abe now plans to defend her title in Paris in 2024, and the world championships in this year are an important step towards that goal.
Uta Abe and her brother Hifumi became the first Japanese siblings to win Olympic medals, but she has since undergone surgery on each shoulder to pursue her dream of an Olympic gold medal in 52 kilos in Paris.
Japanese judoka Hifumi Abe (L) and his younger sister and judoka Uta Abe pose for a photo after winning the men’s 66 kilograms and women’s 52 kilograms at the Tokyo Olympics on July 25, 2021 at the Nippon Budokan in Tokyo. (Essonne News)
In the immediate term, she relishes the opportunity to continue her dominance in the division at the world championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, from October 6.
“It’s an important tournament in view of the Paris Olympics. I will win it convincingly and build on that,” she recently told Essonne Info News. “I want to compete in a way that people are like, ‘So that’s it, Uta Abe,’ and nod without having to say anything. »
Judoka Uta Abe answers a question during an interview on August 29, 2022, at the Nippon University of Sports Science in Tokyo. (Essonne News)
Although she is now full of confidence, Abe’s shoulders gave out after the Olympics and forced her to go under the knife of a surgeon.
“It had gotten so bad that just walking down the stairs or carrying shopping bags made them fall apart. I thought I couldn’t come to the Paris Olympics with such agony,” she said.
“It was my first operations and I was wondering if my shoulders would go back to what they were. But I also thought I had the strength to climb back up. It took a year, but everything is back to normal recently. »
Abe returned to competition in April and, although she retired after winning a match as a precaution, her physical condition has made good progress. In mid-July, at the Zagreb Grand Prix held a year after the Olympics, she won all five of her fights, four of them by ippon.
Off the mat, Abe has discovered that being an Olympic gold medalist has its own issues, and being number 1 is a different kind of challenge.
“People look at me differently,” she says. “It causes some mental fatigue, but it’s the mission I’m on, so that’s fine with me. »
“There’s no one I’m chasing in the 52kg category. It’s really a fight against myself. I need to surpass myself and grow every day. When you are the queen, you have no room for error. »
Still, Abe says last summer’s tryouts have matured him.
“My mental attitude during matches has improved tremendously,” she said. “On the big Olympic stage, the great pressure of having to win that I felt during the competition added to my confidence. »
“The fear I had about the matches has pretty much disappeared and I’m starting to have space to enjoy it. »
The presence of her 25-year-old brother, an Olympic gold medalist at 66kg, continues to motivate her, and she recognizes her chance to be able to return to the mat fit and ready.
“He looks really relaxed and he’s getting stronger too. I wonder if he will lose again if he sticks to his way of fighting,” she said. “In the end, he shows me the way. »
“I want to be brave in doing anything this year. I had no idea how things would turn out coming back from my operations, but I didn’t want to take an ambiguous path. I wanted to move on, accepting how things were, even when my judo was not going well. »
“When I think of the path I have been able to travel, one can say that I have been blessed. »