Olympic silver medalist judoka Cho Gu-ham announces retirement

Judoka Cho Gu-ham celebrates after reaching the final at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics at Nippon Budokan in Tokyo on July 29, 2021. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

Olympic silver medalist judoka Cho Gu-ham announced Sunday that he is retiring from the sport.

Cho, who took silver in the men’s 100 kilograms at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, announced in a social media post on Sunday that he had decided to announce his retirement and will now focus on becoming a good coach.

Rumors that Cho could retire have been circulating among judokas since the start of the year as he has been grappling with a knee injury for years.

That injury appeared to be exacerbated during the delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics last year, leaving Cho to focus solely on rehabilitation after the Games. He dropped out of the national team this year.

Cho took silver in Tokyo after a grueling fight against Aaron Wolf of Japan that saw the pair push the bout into 9 minutes and 35 seconds of golden score time, the longest fight at the Tokyo Games.

Both judokas picked up two penalties in normal time, but were so evenly matched that for over 10 minutes of fighting, neither could break through. Ultimately it was an ippon from Wolf that won the day, taking Cho down to end the war of attrition as the two visibly exhausted judokas struggled to find the strength to break through.

Cho’s good sportsmanship drew attention after the fight, as he stopped to celebrate his opponent’s success despite being visibly upset at having just missed out on winning the gold medal himself. That, along with his generally cheery demeanor, earned Cho a reputation as the gentleman of judo.

While the Tokyo Olympics may have raised Cho’s profile outside of the judo world, he was already well-known in the sport as a formidable judoka.

Cho was the 2018 men’s 100-kilogram world champion and the 2018 Jakarta-Palembang Asian Games silver medalist.

He retires with one Olympic silver medal, one World Championship gold medal, one silver and two bronze Continental Championship medals, seven gold, four silver and six bronze World Tour medals, two gold, one silver and two bronze World Cup medals, an Asiad silver medal and a host of junior and independent awards.

BY JIM BULLEY [jim.bulley@joongang.co.kr]