is a Japanese politician and retired female judoka.

Competing in the extra-lightweight (48 kg) class, she won a record seven world titles and five Olympic medals including two golds at Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004. After her retirement, the International Judo Federation named her "best female judoka ever".

In 2010, she was elected to the House of Councillors, the upper house of the Japanese parliament.

Early and personal life

Ryoko Tamura was born in Higashi-ku, Fukuoka on September 6, 1975. She started judo at the age of seven.

In 1993, she won her first world title and received her fourth dan. This record seven wins was only beaten by French judoka Teddy Riner in 2015, in an era when world championships had become annual events.

She competed in five Olympic Games and won as many medals. At Barcelona 1992, aged only 16 years old, she defeated in the semi-final veteran British fighter and 4-time world champion Karen Briggs, but she lost the final by a small margin against the reigning world champion, Cécile Nowak of France. This was followed by a 4-year, 84-match winning streak that led her to her second Olympic final at Atlanta 1996. Kye resisted all her attacks and scored an advantage towards the end of the fight. Tani's second Olympic silver was a huge setback, and the Japanese media talked of an "Olympic curse". Reflecting on this years later, Tani said, "there was never a curse … in 1992, I was 16, I was lacking experience … in 1996, I was 20". Four years later in Athens, she scored a series of ippon-victories to reach the final, in which she dominated France's Frédérique Jossinet, taking an early koka lead that she confirmed with a waza-ari in the last seconds of the fight. She was the first woman judoka to win two Olympic golds. The AJFF uses qualifying bouts as only one criterion considered for selection, with performance in international events as another.

In Beijing in 2008, she 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 retired from competition in 2010. In a career spanning around 20 years, she was only defeated 5 times.

Popularity and legacy

Tani followed in the footsteps of Kaori Yamaguchi, who in 1984 had become the first Japanese woman to ever win a world championship – the sport had long been a male preserve. Yamaguchi was the inspiration for the character of Yawara Inokuma, the heroine of Naoki Urasawa's popular manga and anime series Yawara! who prepares for the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. When Tani represented Japan in Barcelona, she was viewed by the Japanese public as a real-life Yawara and was soon nicknamed Yawara-chan or Tawara.

Thanks to her success and cheerful personality, Tani grew immensely popular in Japan. She appeared in numerous TV commercials and her wedding ceremony, broadcast live on Japanese television, was followed by 20 million spectators. but she eventually retired from judo after she won the seat in question.

In July 2012, she left the Democratic Party for the newly created and short-lived People's Life First. Later that same year, she was one of the founding members of the People's Life Party, alongside her mentor Ichiro Ozawa.

See also

  • List of multiple Olympic medalists in one event
  • List of multiple Summer Olympic medalists

References

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  • International Olympic Committee
  • Videos of Ryoko Tani (judovision)