Day eight, the final of the judo team event at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, became an all-guns-blazing spectacle. Two super-team dominators, Japan and France, faced off in the highly anticipated final event. The outcome couldn’t have been better with both teams displaying exceptional technical and tactical skills in the closely even final today, 3rd August.
The Road to the Final
The morning began with the round of 32, and Spain opened the competition by beating the Refugee Team with an ample result, 4-0. Israel clashed with Mongolia in a very controversial combat and finally won 4-3 with the last fight by Sagi Muki. Italy moved to the round of 16 after beating Hungary 4-1 with great performances by Pirelli and Toniolo.
The Serbs narrowly defeated the Dutch 4-2 in the overall score of the round of 16 match, with the contest between Kukolj and Michael Korrel being the highlight of all the contests.
Japan, who earlier lost their glory, were quite determined and fought hard against Spain. The last-second throw of Hifumi Abe, and the victory of Takaichi’s ne-waza, helped Japan finally inch closer to almost a closely contested win at the result of 4-3 after a golden score rematch between the players competing.
France also placed its supremacy as Cysqiue, Gaba, Gahie, and Ngayap-Hambou won their matches to help the team win 4-0 over Israel. Germany is also 4-0 up on Austria, and Brazil won against Kazakhstan with a close call, winning 4-3. Korea reached the quarter-finals 4-1, though briefly challenged by Zgank.
Italy was held to a thrilling 3-3 draw with Georgia, but Lombardo’s win in the rematch ensured his country’s progress. Uzbekistan dominated Canada 4-0, setting the stage for an intense quarter-final round.
The Final Showdown: France vs. Japan
The most breath-taking contest indeed was the powerful clashes between France and Japan, with a number of changes in the lead. The final began when Japanese Sanshiro Murao turned over Maxime-Gael Ngayap Hambou with a sharp left uchi-mata into golden score for an early advantage to Japan, then came Takayama, defeating French Romane Dicko after scoring a waza-ari with an o-uchi-gari despite facing two penalties.
The next one on the mat was legendary French judoka Teddy Riner, who rumbled onto the tatami with an ippon against Saito Tatsuru, reducing the score to 2-1. But Japan struck back with Natsumi Tsunoda throwing Sarah-Léonie Cysique for ippon to push the Japanese ahead 3-1.
In a truly spectacular turn of events, the audience was sent reeling as Joan-Benjamin Gaba defeated double Olympic champion Hifumi Abe with a beautiful kata-guruma for ippon. This lit up France’s challenge once again as the score changed to 3-2. Continuing this wave of fortune, one of France’s most iconic judokas, Clarisse Agbegnenou, defeated Takaichi Miku on the left side with a makikomi, leveling the match at 3-3 to set up a decisive final bout.
The deciding contest in the heavyweight +90 kg category featured Teddy Riner against Saito Tatsuru. After six grueling minutes of combat, Riner threw Saito for ippon and took the gold medal for France, keeping them first in the Olympic judo ranking.
Bronze Medal Matches
In the bronze contests, the Brazil-Italy match went to the wire. The score between Brazil and Italy was level at 3-3, but Silva’s uchi-mata in the final bout sealed the bronze for Brazil.
The other bronze medal match pitted Korea against Germany and also had to go to a tiebreaker. An Baul won over Wandtke in the rematch on penalties to seal bronze for Korea.
| Winner | Score | Loser |
| Mixed Team Elimination Round of 32 | ||
| Spain | 4-0 | EOR |
| Israel | 4-3 | Mongolia |
| Italy | 4-1 | Hungary |
| Mixed Team Elimination Round of 16 | ||
| Serbia | 4-2 | Netherlands |
| Japan | 4-3 | Spain |
| Germany | 4-1 | Austria |
| Brazil | 4-2 | Kazakhstan |
| France | 4-0 | Israel |
| Korea | 4-1 | Turkey |
| Italy | 4-3 | Georgia |
| Uzbekistan | 4-0 | Canada |
| Mixed Team Quarter-final | ||
| Japan | 4-1 | Serbia |
| Germany | 4-3 | Brazil |
| France | 4-1 | Korea |
| Italy | 4-2 | Uzbekistan |
| Mixed Team Repechage | ||
| Brazil | 4-1 | Serbia |
| Korea | 4-2 | Uzbekistan |
| Mixed Team Semi-final | ||
| Japan | 4-0 | Germany |
| France | 4-1 | Italy |
| Mixed Team Bronze Medal | ||
| Brazil | 4-3 | Italy |
| Korea | 4-3 | Germany |
| Mixed Team Final | ||
| France | 4-3 | Japan |
A Historic Conclusion
France defeated Japan to win the team judo final at the Paris 2024 Olympics, just as they had done at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. France mounted a dramatic comeback, most notably from Riner and Agbegnenou to overpower Japan that had taken three of the first four contests and defended its gold medal in this second-ever Olympic mixed team judo event.
All that combined to make this final one of the most memorable judo moments of the whole Games. It will be long remembered, strongly illustrating what makes Olympic judo so special
