r/judo • u/GwynnethIDFK • May 19 '25
Judo News 'Blind' judoka who won gold at 2020 Paralympics is banned for life after revelation that she sees perfectly
https://voz.us/en/world/250519/24697/blind-judoka-who-won-gold-at-2020-paralympics-is-banned-for-life-after-revelation-that-she-sees-perfectly.html10
u/Azulaatlantica May 19 '25
Did no one read the article?
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u/turtle-hermit-roshi May 19 '25
C'mon. Judoka reading?
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u/rtsuya Nidan | Hollywood Judo | Tatami Talk Podcast May 19 '25
Just put the word kuzushi in there somewhere and we'll read it
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u/GwynnethIDFK May 19 '25
I just cross posted with the article's original title which I agree is kinda click-baity.
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u/d_rome May 19 '25
If I am understanding the article correctly, it appears she used to meet the criteria for being visually impaired, but no longer does. If that is the case then I'm not sure if you can say she sees "perfectly" and "banned for life" really means, "no longer qualifies as a visually impaired athlete."
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u/rtsuya Nidan | Hollywood Judo | Tatami Talk Podcast May 19 '25
I interviewed silver medalist for para judo Liana Mutia in the past where we she mentioned the cheating issue and the incentives behind it.
The article isn't that great unfortunately not talking about the changing requirements
0
u/Haunting-Beginning-2 May 19 '25
Poor country athlete, probably struggling through judo shark pool, incentivised to bend the rules? I wonder if I qualify for a para-Olympian. My wife keeps telling me I am not well endowed, when I keep saying it’s huge! Perhaps I need to change the rhetoric, and understand that the pendulum effect into uchimata is enhanced with low slung weight, so I must be disabled!
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u/Dangerous-Sink6574 May 19 '25
This article is completely shit writing. She isn’t banned nor did she cheat. They changed the rules on what qualifies as “blind” and thus she’s no longer able to compete because she no longer as of today, meets those requirements.
The article’s authors are intentionally misleading with the “banned” title and tainting the competitor for no reason.
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u/Gimme_The_Loot May 19 '25
What's weird is the title claims "perfect vision". So it's either bad but no longer bad enough or perfect, but which is it?
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u/u4004 May 22 '25
Maybe she has a visual condition that doesn’t impair her on these particular tests.
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u/Fresh_Criticism6531 gokyu May 23 '25
"tainting the competitor for no reason"
Nope, there is a reason, they are sacrificing her reputation in order to gain more clicks, and therefore money.
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u/VerySaltyScientist May 19 '25
I dont get how she managed to be allowed in that division. I did the paperwork to compete in the j2 division. For this part of it included a test that could tract my eyes for responses to some lights and it also checks for brain activity to see of your brain registers the stimuli. How the hell can anyone fake that test. It even detects when you blink too. Unless she paid off a doctor and an actual blind person to get their results and the dr claim it's her. Seems like a lot of work and bribing to do that.
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u/rtsuya Nidan | Hollywood Judo | Tatami Talk Podcast May 19 '25
I posted another comment with a link to an interview I did. In short, yes they pay off people or the government is in on it
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u/kaidenka May 19 '25
Some of the visually impaired guys I've trained with have complained about this issue. More specifically, the different levels of categorization for B1, B2, and B3 and who falls under what. I've known B1 athletes who were irritated with B3 athletes they had to compete against in local and regional tournaments because a borderline B3 is basically sighted.
I'm still not super familiar with the J1 and J2 categories.
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u/ukifrit blind judoka May 20 '25
J1 is for b1 (totally blind) athletes only. J2 is for b2 and b3 athletes. Yeah, it was unfair.
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u/Emperor_of_All May 19 '25
Wow.... there are no words.... I am sort of stunlocked.
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u/BenKen01 May 19 '25
Maybe try reading the article first
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u/Emperor_of_All May 19 '25
I honestly am unsure what I am looking at, people are implying it may be a rule change however the title says she has perfect vision. So does she have perfect vision or is it because she was disqualified due to a rule change that excludes her old disability.
There was no conclusive evidence in the article. But if you say she sees perfectly it would suggest she paid someone off to get her in since she was in the most severe blindness is what she passed.
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u/flaming_bob May 19 '25
You know, I used to make jokes about stuff like this when I was 12. I didn't think it would actually happen.
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u/Jd18082000 May 19 '25
WTF? Are we reaching this level of cheating in IOC now? Unbelievable something happens in a sport like this, especially in Judo
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u/Troublesom96 May 19 '25
The cheater is Azeri from Azerbaijan
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u/bomtombadil-o May 19 '25
She’s not a cheater, it’s just a new rule set for what counts as “blind.” It’s a click bait title.
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u/yooobuddd May 19 '25
For those not reading the article:
There is no evidence the athlete engaged in deliberate fraud.
"However, the controversy revolves around an update in the Paralympic classification system, which reduced the number of categories and excluded some eye conditions that were previously allowed"