Ryoko Tani

; born September 6, 1975 is one of the world's most famous and successful judoka. She was born in Fukuoka, Fukuoka. Also, she is now an employee at Toyota Motor Corporation.

Career

She is commonly known as 'Yawara-chan' (from the title character of "Yawara!", a popular judo manga). Since she won the International Women's Judo Championships in 1990, 'Yawara-chan' has gone on to win the event every year. She has a record seven world titles and she brought home the 48kg-category gold medal from Sydney Olympics in 2000 and the Athens Olympics in 2004.

Her 84-match winning streak was finally broken in 1996 by North Korea's Kye Sun Hui.

In 2003, she married Yoshitomo Tani, an Olympian and professional baseball player then with the Orix Blue Wave (now with the Yomiuri Giants). The reception reportedly cost $3 million.

In Beijing in 2008 Tani, who hadn't been beaten in a major international competition since the Atlanta Games in 1996, saw her hopes of a third-straight gold evaporate when judges awarded penalty points to Romania's Alina Dumitru after both competitors failed to show much aggression. Looking stunned, Tani fought desperately after the final controversial penalty call, but with only seconds left she had no time to mount an attack.

She defeated Russia's Lyudmila Bogdanova for bronze. She gained her fifth Olympic medal with the bronze.

Popularity and selection controversy

Tani has been very popular in Japan. The Ryoko characters from the World Heroes and Fighter's History fighting video games series are both loosely based on her. Also, the recent birth of her child, Yoshiaki, was a major press event with camera crews waiting for the first glimpse of her emergence from the hospital.

Tani lost the 2007 All-Japan Weight Class Judo Championship, which doubles as the qualifier for Olympics and the World Championships on those years when the events take place, but was selected as Japan's representative anyway by the All Japan Judo Federation (AJJF). She then won the gold medal in the Rio de Janeiro World Championships. Tani lost the All-Japan again in April 2008, to 21-year-old Emi Yamagishi. Again, the AJJF selected Tani for Japan's team in place of Yamagishi. The AJJF refused to answer questions about Tani's selection after the decision, but later said that Tani was selected because, "She is especially strong against international opponents." The selection prompted Philip Brasor, media commentator for the Japan Times to ask, "...maybe Tani is the better choice, but why have qualifying bouts in the first place?" [Brasor, Philip, " [http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fd20080810pb.html Celebrity rules as the Olympics strays far from its ideal] ", "Japan Times", August 10, 2008, p. 11.] The AJFF uses qualifying bouts as only one criterion considered for selection, with performance in international events as another.

Notes

External links

* [http://www.olympic.org/uk/news/olympic_news/newsletter_full_story_uk.asp?id=2308 International Olympic Committee]
* [http://www.judovision.org/?s=Ryoko+Tani Videos of Ryoko Tani] (judovision.org)