This is quite frankly an exciting time in the Canadian judo program. At the 2024 World Judo Championships, Canada came away with three medals. At the last six World Judo Championships, Team Canada has won a dozen medals. To put this into perspective, at the previous 35 World Judo Championships prior to 2018, Team Canada only won eight medals.
Canada’s best judoka going to Paris is Japanese-born sensation Christa Deguchi. The 28-year-old is eligible to represent Canada because her father Tom was from Winnipeg, and moved to Japan to teach English. Deguchi initially represented Japan, but switched to Canada in 2017. Since then she has won two gold medals at the World Judo Championships in the women’s 57 kilogram weight class, and 11 International Judo Federation Grand Slam events.
However, just representing Canada at the Olympic Games has been a struggle for Deguchi. Due to International Olympic Committee rules, there can be only one athlete representing one nation in each weight class. In recent years, Deguchi and Jessica Klimkait of Whitby, Ontario have been among the best judokas Canada has ever produced and it just so happens they are both in the women’s 57 kilogram weight class. Klimkait won the World Championship in 2021, and earned the chance to represent Canada at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, where she won bronze. However, this year at the 2024 World Judo Championships in Abu Dhabi, Klimkait settled for bronze, and was one place behind Deguchi on the World Championship podium, as Deguchi won silver. The only judoka that placed ahead of Deguchi and Klimkait on the podium was Mi-mi Huh of South Korea.
Canada’s other medal hopefuls in judo are reigning Olympic bronze medalist and 2022 World Championship silver medalist Catherine Beauchemin-Pinard (women’s 63 kilograms), 2021 IJF Grand Slam gold medalist and 2024 World Championship silver medalist Shady Elnahas of Toronto, Ontario (men’s 100 kilograms), 2024 IJF Grand Slam silver medalist Francois Gauthier-Drapeau of Alma, Quebec (men’s 81 kilograms), and four-time IJF Grand Slam silver medalist Arthur Margelidon of Montreal, Quebec (men’s 73 kilograms).
In Paris, Deguchi will be competing on July 28, and Beauchemin-Pinard will be competing on July 30 in women’s action. Then in men’s action, Margelidon will be on July 29, Gauthier-Drapeau on July 30, and Elnahas on August 1.
