Japan's Judo Revives; Head Coach Choked with Tears

The Rio Olympics in midway, Japan has done marvelously well so far in most events - particularly in Judo with medals won in every category aggregating 12.

Here's an episode of how Japan's national sport Judo managed to revive after a disheartening performance in London four years ago. On August 12, just after the last event in men's 100+kg, Head Coach Kousei Inoue met the press and looked back on the performance of Japan's silver medalist Hisayoshi Harasawa.

The moment he was asked what he thought of his team's overall performance, Inouye paused a moment and suddenly broke into tears the next moment, weeping in spite of himself:

"Well, I must tell you my boys and girls certainly did their bests - they sure did......."

Asked how he had fared the four years since London, Inouye ran out his words:

"This is awful, I'm sorry I can't control myself. I'm sorry."

His sudden emotional disarray had good reasons. Kousei Inouye was appointed head coach of the national Judo team at age 34 with a sole mission to rebuild Japan's Judo out of the nightmare in London four years ago. Inouye was a gold medalist at the Athens Olympics and looked upon as the symbol of Japanese Judo with his colourful and graceful Judo.

His career in a way symbolized a "downfall" of Japanese Judo as he lost his last international match against a muscle-oriented, unorthodox European Judo.

He asked himself, he recalls, if he should relentlessly seek orthodox Japanese Judo at the risk of medals as he had done. His conclusion was negative; he introduced all possible options to train his Judomen. "I just couldn't bear," he recalls, "to see them suffer as It did against the muscle and hustle of foreign Judomen."

Inouye invited Sambo wrestlers from Russia, Brazilian Jujitsu artists, etc. for training his boys with. He sent potential Judomen to Okinawa to wrestle with Okinawa Sumo wrestlers. He engaged professional physical trainers to replace classical Judo coaches who knew little of muscle-building.

Inouye has actually revolutionized Japanese Judo in its training routines. His tears symbolized a significant page turned in the history of Japanese Judo.

Good show, Kousei Inouye.