r/judo Jul 28 '24

Judo News Uta Abe suffers first defeat since 2019. First time she will be leaving a major tournament without a medal.

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u/pitt-is-itt Jul 28 '24

She and her brother have been icons in Japan since the last Olympics. I walk past a picture of them scaling several stories on my way to work everyday so she was almost expected to bring home the gold. To get eliminated this early against those levels of expectations must be emotionally devastating. I hope she bounces back and is able to make it to the next Olympics

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u/[deleted] Jul 28 '24

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u/a_boy_called_sue Jul 29 '24

Can you tell me? My impression is "honour" is a big thing in Japan. I don't mean like bs "oh they're like samurai" crap, I mean, there seems to be a felt sense of duty to others and in failure, a sense of shame. I can imagine that she feels the weight of that shame on her, not only is she aas for herself but for the shame at having "let down" her countrymen. can you tell me, is this accurate? It seems wrong for someone to be so upset because of a culture of shame or fear of having failed others.

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u/pitt-is-itt Jul 29 '24

Hmm. Maybe, but I feel like it’s the same for any athlete with expectations that great. Like if Lebron and US basketball got eliminated before getting a chance to medal, I’m sure all of the US would feel really disappointed. Gold is expected but to not even medal would be a major disappointment.

Also judo is a 1v1 combat sport and I think losses hurt a bit more in these sports than team sports and races.