Last night I reread the foreword to Kyuzo Mifune’s classic The Canon of Judo (1954). It includes this:

“Judo is now looked upon with a sense of hope and expectation, not only in Japan but throughout the world. The reason for this expectation and support can be found in the fact that judo embodies in its clear and rational movements the basic conditions for the most natural and unfettered human activity. The techniques and even the essence of judo are made possible solely by its fulfillment of these basic conditions.”

And this:

“Independence has been restored to Japan, and yet world peace still eludes us. True peace is the desire of all mankind, and this means working toward a world free from all forms of evil. Judo contains many aspects of this truth; it knows no borders, and is loved by spiritual people regardless of their nationality.”

A little over the top? Sure. But only a little.

You can’t help but be struck by the impressively international results to come out of Beijing, the diversity of nations to achieve success in this discipline. In all, twenty-five countries from four continents were represented on the podium, and while the majority of the gold ended up in Asia, as is to be expected, Cuba and the Netherlands came second and third in the medal count behind only Japan. And although Jigoro Kano — Asia’s first International Olympic Committee member in addition to judo’s founder — was perhaps surprisingly ambivalent about the prospects of judo as an Olympic sport during his lifetime, his vision was from its early days international in scope. The kind of results we’ve seen in Beijing are tribute to judo’s international spirit.

Also, people got thrown.

And often for ippon: just under half of all matches in this tournament have ended in ippon. That’s cheering. A few days ago, the NBC broadcast team apparently said that judo has been the fourth most popular streaming Olympic event (no word on the other three), and I’m pleased that such a significant audience was exposed to so many decisive finishes, so many clear-cut techniques.

The Women

The women’s heavyweight gold medal bout was one of the best in the entire tournament. It definitely featured the most dramatic finish, as China’s Tong Wen, trailing by a yuko with only fifteen seconds left, threw Japan’s Maki Tsukada for ippon with a tremendous seoi otoshi. The crowd, as you would expect, was rapturous. Tsukada, the world and Olympic champion, knelt on the mat in disbelief.

Bronze medals went to Lucija Polavder (SLOV) and Idalys Ortiz (CUB). Polavder outlasted the much larger Korean Na-Young Kim, taking the win by shido. Na-Young had her moments on the day, including a fine uchi mata for waza-ari and a solid kesa gatame to get by Egyptian Samah Ramadan. Ortiz bested Tserenkhand Dorjgotov of Mongolia with a huge o goshi for ippon — definitely one to watch for once videos start making the rounds.

Results:

1. Tong Wen (CHN)
2. Maki Tsukada (JPN)
3. Lucija Polavder (SLOV)
3. Idalys Ortiz (CUB)
5. Na-Young Kim (KOR)
5. Tserenkhand Dorjgotov (MGL)
7. Samah Ramadan (EGY)
7. Anne Sophie Mondiere (FRA)

The Men

Satoshi Ishii came into this tournament unbeholden to the Japanese tradition of ippon judo — judo that strives for ippon at all times, rather than fighting tactically for more modest yuko or koka wins. “The most important point is to win by any means,” he said.

But as it turned out, four of his five wins came by way of ippon, including his semifinal against the Georgian Lasha Gujejiani. Up a koka (via shido) and by a yuko from a last-minute ouchi gari, Ishii slipped through a failed sacrifice technique, pinning the Georgian to end the match.

The gold medal match against Abdullo Tangriev (UZB) was less than thrilling, as the only scoring came on Tangriev penalties, but this was nonetheless a huge win for the young All-Japan champion. And for Japanese judo on the whole: while four gold medals represents only half of Japan’s record haul in Athens, the men’s heavyweight title carries special significance, especially given the talent in this year’s field.

Foremost among that talented field was world champion phenom Teddy Riner (FRA), who fell to Tangriev via shido in overtime. Riner went on to take bronze over Gujejiani, taking him down with an o soto gari for yuko and pinning him to the mat for the ippon. Riner followed the win with such a dance as he left the mats. Such a dance. The other bronze went to Cuba’s Oscar Braison, who threw powerful Iranian Mohammad Reza Roudaki with a makikomi for waza-ari and pinned him for the other half of the waza-ari awasete ippon.

Results:

1. Satoshi Ishii (JPN)
2. Abdullo Tangriev (UZB)
3. Teddy Riner (FRA)
3. Oscar Braison (CUB)
5. Mohammad Reza Roudaki (IRI)
5. Lasha Gujejiani (GEO)
7. Tamerlan Tmenov (RUS)
7. João Schlittler (BRA)

And that’s it. The heavyweight finals, in both men’s and women’s competition, were a fine finish to a glorious tournament. We won’t see judo on this level again until the 2009 World Championships in Rotterdam, and even then, it won’t really be the same — the Olympics are something else entirely. We’ll have to wait for London.