Member News

February 6, 2011   

Team USA Takes Experience From Paris

(Colorado Springs, CO)

Team USA headed to Paris with plans to climb the podium. So it was really hard to come so close, especially given how many gold medals American players have captured in the last year and especially after winning some really great fights at this tournament.

"We didn't get the results we wanted, but this is the toughest tournament in the world," said Jimmy Pedro, USA Judo’s coach for the 2012 Olympic Games.
"A lot of our kids got a lot of valuable experience here, and we had some big wins but it just wasn't enough to get on the medal stand," he said.

World Champion Kayla Harrison, who’s been mining gold around the world for months, took a fifth place on day two of the Grand Slam Paris Sunday. She won her first match in the 78 kg division with two yukos against Canadian Marylise Levesque, who was fresh off a victory in her first match. But in her second fight Harrison lost to none other than Brazilian Mayra Aguiar. Harrison beat Aguiar in Tokyo in September to take gold at the World Championships, making history as the first American woman to win gold at the Worlds since 1984 and the first American to win gold since her coach Jimmy Pedro took the medal in 1999.

“It was not my day,” Harrison said. “I didn’t get my normal warm up routine in and I got sick after my first match.”

Harrison said that her focus now is on the training camp in Paris this week and upcoming tournaments in Austria and Germany over the next two weekends.

“I’m just focusing on having a good training camp and the next two tournaments,” Harrison said.

Nick Delpopolo, another of Jimmy Pedro’s fighters at USA Judo’s Team FORCE in Wakefield, Mass., came very close to Grand Slam Paris podium. Delpopolo, a contender for the 2012 Olympic Judo Team, first beat a Portugal player and then a hard fighting Mongolian in preliminary rounds on the first day of the Grand Slam. In his third match, though, he lost in Golden Score to the Japanese player who eventually took bronze in the 73 kg division. Delpopolo took 5th. Japan and France dominated the tournament, each taking five golds.

Two-time World Cup medalist Nick Kossor, coached by Jason Morris in Glenville, NY, won two preliminary rounds against a Cuban and Ukrainian before losing to an Uzbekistan player who eventually ascended to gold in the 60 kg division.

“This is one of the top events of the year after the World Championships and World Masters,” said Eddie Liddie, USA Judo’s Director of Athlete Performance. “It's a good start to the year considering the level of competition. It’s a good showing in the quest for points and we are looking forward to the rest of the year’s competition.”

For complete results, click HERE.