Shohei Ono made two of his first three opponents cry when he returned to judo at the Tokyo Olympics after 18 mysterious months away.
These …
Shohei Ono made two of his first three opponents cry when he returned to judo at the Tokyo Olympics after 18 mysterious months away. These were not small tears, either. Loud, body-shaking sobs emanated from the men who had to walk behind Ono in defeat through the otherwise hushed halls of the Budokan, giving voice to the anguish of extraordinary athletes whose lifetimes of preparation had still left them unequipped to survive four minutes against Japan’s elusive judo superstar. Turkey’s Bilal Çiloğlu, the world’s No.9 lightweight, screamed and put his fists to his head after Ono pinned him helplessly to the tatami for an ippon, his wails echoing down the corridors. Azerbaijan’s Rustam Orujov, second ranked in the world and top-seeded in Tokyo, dried his eyes with his untucked gi after Ono ended the rematch of their gold medal bout in Rio de Janeiro with two waza aris 65 seconds apart. Ono is the most dominant player on a Japanese judo team that might be the best in Olympic history. His combination of brute ferocity and tactical invention have kept him unbeaten since 2015, even in an Olympic weight class stacked with incredible talents — only one of whom has ever even scored a point against Ono. The 29-year-old Ono is now a two-time Olympic champion after winning five straight matches at the Budokan, completing his return with a superiority over his peers that only he can boast in the modern sport. Not even two-time Olympic champ Teddy Riner, the massive French heavyweight who went a decade between losses, is as dominant as Ono now. Ono is also idiosyncratic: He decided not to compete between the start of the coronavirus pandemic and the Olympics, choosing a path to gold that would seem foolish to a judoka without his abilities.
