When we come to comparisons in sports, it is quite easy to find lot of similarities. What Ronaldinho was in football, synonymous with magic, fantasy and perfect performance, in judo this is the Japanese ONO Shohei. When we make such a comparison, we will not be wrong, Brazilians in football, Japanese in judo or Mozart on the piano. The two-time Olympic Champion is on a French tour these days, and today, on the eve of the 50th edition of the Paris Grand Slam, we caught him in the Dojo de Paris (former Institut du Judo) where he demonstrates the skill of his judo techniques.
Extremely humble, as befits a true champion, he agreed to talk with us, not wanting to stand out too much in front of others. He has been living in Europe for some time now, studying in the UK, in order to improve his language as well as possible, but also in general to exchange experience with colleagues from the judo world.
I’m excited, I can travel a lot more to the other countries, learn about different cultures and languages. This is very good experience for me, especially this training camp with my sensei HOSOKAWA Shinji, where we can demonstrate our techniques together, laugh together and just spending this time together means a lot to me. When I was a competitor, probably I hated judo little bit, in a good way of course, but now I’m enjoying much more in many other ways. Because of that, I respect sensei so much. I need to improve my English, after Grand Slam Paris I’m coming back to my English school in Edinburgh.
The training in Paris gathered over 500 participants, which is a great prelude to the exciting, most popular tournament in the world. The Olympic Games are approaching, so he could not avoid the question about the potential winners in his category up to 73 kg.
I hope for MARUYAMA Joshiro if he would compete in U73kg, but unfortunately impossible. But definitely some of my favorites are Lasha SHAVDATUASHVILI, TSEND-OCHIR Tsogtbaatar, Manuel LOMBARDO who is strong European judoka could win in Paris Olympics.
Judoka
Author: Mario Krvavac