As reviewed yesterday, there are several tournaments left to qualify for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. When one says, ‘to qualify’, it is most likely in reference to the direct qualification system. To keep gender equality in tack, a total of 238 athletes can qualify [119 men – 119 women] within the direct qualification zone. To achieve that, you need to be amongst the top 17 on the IJF World Ranking List within your respected weight class. Bear in mind, only one per nation can qualify. This is option one.
Option two is to fetch a spot amongst the continental qualification. In addition to the 238 judoka, 100 athletes will be qualified as per the IJF World Ranking List of the Olympic Qualification period based on continental representation and according to the following procedure:
- For each continent as listed in the table below and based on the IJF World Ranking List of the Olympic Qualification period, a Continental Ranking List will be created listing all the athletes from the relevant Continent across all weight categories and genders according to their World Ranking points of the Olympic Qualification period.
- Athletes with the highest number of points on the Continental Ranking List will qualify according to the following continental quota;
Remember, a maximum of one athlete per nation can qualify through continental qualification across all weight categories and gender.
Option three is grasping a universality invitation place, which comes already with restricted eligibility. Judo receives 15 universality invitation places for individuals. Universality Places were developed by the International Olympic Committee to help ensure the participation at the Olympic Games of athletes from countries that would, through normal qualification channels, have little or no representation at the Games. There is an application process to go through with the following countries being eligible;
Although we discovered three options to make it to the Games, none of that applies to the host nation as they are automatically allocated 14 quotas [7 men – 7 women], one in each weight class. The rules also apply for the Mixed Team event. Speaking of which, for a nation to be entitled to partake in the final day of the judo event at the Olympics, they must have 6 qualified judoka during the individual event precisely in the following weight categories: W-57, W-70, W+70, M-73, M-90, M+90. To conclude, there is one Mixed Team event invitation place for each continent too. This is the road to Paris 2024.
Author: Szandra Szogedi