From Paralympic cycling gold to the judo mat: Larissa Klaassen’s bold new quest
Paralympic cycling champion Larissa Klaassen of the Netherlands has taken up Para judo and hopes to compete at the LA28 Paralympic Games 18 Sep 2026
Five years after winning Paralympic gold in Para cycling, Larissa Klaassen is chasing another medal in a completely different sport. The Dutchwoman has swapped her tandem bike for the judo mat and, after nine months of serious training, is already targeting a medal at the LA28 Paralympic Games.
The upcoming IBSA Judo World Championship will be her next big test — and another chance to prove that her ambitious journey into judo is only just beginning. A bronze medal at the recent European Championships shows her that nothing is impossible and boosted her confidence.
“To win bronze at my first-ever judo Europeans was insane”, she said.
Klaassen knows the road to the 2028 Games is an unusually short one.
“I fully realise that becoming a good judoka in two and a half years and then wanting to win a medal at the Games is pretty crazy,” she said with a laugh. “But I’m not starting a new adventure in a new sport with the mindset that taking part is more important than winning. I’m a perfectionist, and I genuinely believe I can do it.”
From the Para cycling track to the judo mat
The elite-sports lifestyle she more or less lost after her successful campaign at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics ultimately became the driving force behind her new adventure. Klaassen had hoped to continue her Para cycling career, but pilot Imke Brommer stepped away from the sport after starting a new job.
Despite a lengthy search, Klaassen was unable to find a new tandem partner.
“That time gave me somewhat of an identity crisis,” she said. “I missed the life of an elite athlete terribly, and I noticed it in everything I did. Of course, deep down I was still an athlete, but I missed competing, performing and setting goals.”
That is why finding a new passion in Para judo has meant so much to her.
“This really is the sport that has filled the void in my heart,” Klaassen said.
“I’m enjoying it and I feel completely whole again as Larissa, as a person. More than ever, I’m looking forward to see what the future holds. When I look at everything I’ve already experienced in such a short time, I feel incredibly lucky that I’ve been given this opportunity.”
Opening a new chapter
Her move into Para judo did not come entirely out of the blue. During her cycling career, Klaassen regularly trained at the Stay Fit gym on Texel, in the Netherlands, where she first encountered judo around 2013. “Nico Waerts, the owner of Stay Fit, has spent his entire life in martial arts”, Klaassen explained.
Because falling is an inherent risk in cycling, Waerts initially worked with Klaassen on fall-prevention training.
“Sometimes I still had some energy left, so we’d mess around and judo a bit,” she recalled. “Eventually, that turned into judo in a judogi. I wouldn’t be Larissa if I didn’t eventually want to achieve something with it, so I went on to earn my yellow belt.”
For years, however, judo remained just a hobby. “I absolutely loved it, but because of the risk of injury, I couldn’t really do the sport while I was still cycling.”
That changed at the end of 2025, when Klaassen finally decided to go for it.
“Judo had been somewhere in the back of my mind for a long time, but I never actually made the decision. Saying yes to judo also meant definitively closing the cycling chapter. That was a big deal for me for a long time. Especially because I knew I could be successful in cycling, and I didn’t want to throw that opportunity away.”
Then, on 30 December, 2025, she sat down with Waerts. “I was feeling completely lost,” she said. “I missed elite sport so much. Nico said, ‘Why don’t you give judo a try?’ Apparently, I needed someone else to say it to me.”
That very same day, Klaassen began training at full intensity. Soon afterwards, she contacted national coach Daniëlle Vriezema.
“Paralympic judo is still a very small sport in the Netherlands, so she was immediately open to me joining the program.”
Since then, she rapidly improved and made her international debut at the Grand Prix in Sao Paulo in July, where she finished fifth.
“I knew the fight for Paralympic ranking points would start in Brazil, so I really wanted to be there. The experience was amazing. Normally, I’d needed time to recover physically and mentally after a competition, but this time I just wanted to get back on the mat.
“It’s all a little strange, really,” she adds. “I’ve flown all over the world for competitions and experienced pretty much everything already. I’m a seasoned elite athlete, but I basically just have to learn how to do judo.”
And that, she says, is the biggest challenge.
“The hardest thing about judo is that it’s unpredictable. In cycling, I knew that if I rode as hard as I could and nothing went wrong, a certain time would come out. Now I’m standing opposite people I don’t know at all. It takes some getting used to, but that’s also what makes it so much fun.”
“What encouraged me was that the national coach said I can genuinely match the competition in terms of strength and technique”, Klaassen said. “It sounds pretty crazy to hear that you can beat people who have been practicing this sport for 10 or 20 years, even though you’ve only just started.”
For Klaassen, 2026 is primarily about gaining experience and building a foundation in her new sport.
“It’s amazing that I’m already going to events like the World Championships so soon after starting. Let’s see what I can show there,” she said.
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