Judoka Huh Mi-mi takes silver in women's 57 kilograms

Olympic Sports

Judoka Huh Mi-mi takes silver in women's 57 kilograms

Published: 30 Jul. 2024, 01:37 Updated: 30 Jul. 2024, 15:40

PAIK JI-HWAN
paik.jihwan@joongang.co.kr

Korean judoka Huh Mi-mi, left, in action during the women’s 57-kilogram final against Christa Deguchi of Canada at the Paris Olympics at Champ-de-Mars Arena in Paris on Monday. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

Korean judoka Huh Mi-mi lost to Christa Deguchi of Canada in the women’s 57-kilogram final on Monday to take silver at the Paris Olympics, ending an eight-year Olympic medal drought for Korean female judoka.

The match at Champ-de-Mars Arena in Paris went into golden score — a sudden-death overtime during which the first person to score an ippon or waza-ari becomes the winner.

After both judokas received two shidos — given for any rule violation and sometimes called a yellow card — Huh took a third in golden score to immediately lose the match and claim silver.

A shido is given for any rule violation like not attacking enough, intentionally stepping out of bounds, playing too defensively or putting a hand on the opponent’s face. A third shido results in a victory for the opponent.

Huh's silver is Korea’s first medal in judo at the Paris Olympics.

Her first Olympic medal comes after she renounced her Japanese citizenship in December last year in order to fulfill her grandmother’s last wish — that Huh represent Korea at the Olympics. She held dual citizenship until last year.

A total of 11 Korean judokas are competing at this year's Olympics. Judo runs through Aug. 3 and the competition for each weight class spans a full day.

Kim Ji-su will compete in the women's -63 kilogram competition on Tuesday, while Lee Joon-hwan will participate in the men's -81 kilogram competition on the same day.

Korea won three medals — one silver and two bronze — at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

BY PAIK JI-HWAN [paik.jihwan@joongang.co.kr]