Judo competitions at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris took place from 27 July to 3 August at Grand Palais Éphémère in Champ de Mars.[1] The number of judokas competing across fourteen weight categories at these Games has been reduced from 393 in Tokyo 2020 to 372, with an equal distribution between men and women.
Despite the slight changes in athlete figures, the judo program for Paris 2024 remains constant from the previous editions, as the competition featured an equal number of bodyweight classes for men and women, with seven each, and the return of the mixed team tournament.[2][3]
Competition format
The judo program features a total of fourteen bodyweight classes, seven each for both men and women. Regularly starting on the first day of the competition, a single men's and women's weight category will occur each day before the program concludes with the mixed team tournament (scheduled for 3 August).[2]
In each weight category, athletes are seeded in a single-elimination bracket, a traditional knock-out format until the final with a slight twist. Those defeated in the quarterfinals will remain in the competition with a repechage draw resulting to double bronze-medal matches awarded to the judokas.
The mixed-team tournament, an event introduced in the previous edition, features a squad of six individual judokas with three weight categories per gender competing against another team. To win every match, the team must score four victories out of six rounds.
Since the previous edition, several rule changes are instituted to empower the judo program for Paris 2024 and subsequent Summer Olympic editions. Based on the 2016 IJFrule changes, the game time for men have shortened by a minute, and the length of a game becomes four minutes similar to the women's side. The waza-ari scores remain constant from Tokyo 2020, requiring a judoka to pin his or her opponent between the ten and twenty-second limit, or to throw the opponent successfully but not well-controlled to be awarded as ippon. According to the fundamental judo rules, any athlete can win in a tripartite pathway: 1) to throw the opponent to the ground at a certain efficiency, 2) to hold down the opponent for 20 seconds, and 3) to force the opponent to a submission by arm lock or by strangulation. Originally, scoring an ippon ends the game but two waza-aris are now equal to an ippon in the competition.[1]
The competition at these Games comprised a total of 372 athletes coming from their respective NOCs; each could enter a maximum of fourteen judokas, seven each for both men and women per bodyweight category.[3] The host country France received a spot in all fourteen individual events, while fifteen places were reserved for the eligible NOCs through universality quotas awarded by the Tripartie Commission.[2]
The remaining judokas were required to undergo a qualifying process to secure a spot in their respective weight category for the Games through the world ranking list prepared by the International Judo Federation (IJF).[4][5] The qualification window had commenced on 24 June 2022, and concluded two years later (23 June 2024), with the final eligibility list published two days after the deadline.[2]
The top 17 judokas in each bodyweight category from the world ranking list qualified directly for the Games, with each NOC subjected to a limit of one judoka per division. If an NOC had more than one judoka ranked among the top 17 in a weight class, it was for the NOC to decide which athlete obtained the quota place.[2]
Further continental quotas (13 men and 12 women for Europe, 12 of each gender for Africa, ten men and 11 women for the Americas, ten of each gender for Asia, and five of each gender for Oceania) were also available. The International Judo Federation publishes a list of all judokas for each continent across all gender-based bodyweight categories to assign these quota places according to their world ranking points. Eligible judokas with the highest number of points on the ranking list will secure a continental quota for their respective NOC at the Games regardless of their gender and weight category. Each NOC may only enter a single judoka through the continental qualification rules.[3][2]
The mixed-team tournament will offer five invitational places (one for each continent) to the highest-ranked NOCs that have qualified judokas in only five of the six mixed-team weight classes. Among these NOCs, the highest-ranked judoka vying for qualification will fill the remaining quota place to complete the team.[2]
