Paris 2024: Best Para judo moments

The Paris 2024 Paralympic Games were packed with memorable moments, including athletic feats and historic firsts, that took place at stunning venues in front of a vocal crowd.  

We will share three moments from each sport that made the Games very special.

Top moment

Japan’s Yujiro Seto turned his bronze medal from Tokyo 2020 into a gold at Paris 2024.

Seto won the gold medal in the men’s -73kg J2 by beating Giorgi Kaldani of Georgia with two waza-ari's inside the first minute of their final contest.

“I am very happy, I have achieved my dream. I can calm down now,” Seto said. “My favourite technique is seoi-nage, I like it and always try to do it, as I did today (scoring a waza-ari because of it).

“I had to change weight category, from -66kg to -73kg, and my physical training became really hard. At Tokyo 2020, I won bronze in the -66kg, I was 21 years old. Now, three years later, I had to become very strong to adapt.

"I had to start from zero because a different category is another world.”

Biggest surprise

Nicolina Pernheim Goodrich of Sweden claimed her first Paralympic medal at her fifth Games. She beat Turkiye’s Merve Uslu Hajabipour 11-0 in the women’s -70kg J1 event at the Champ-de-Mars Arena.

Goodrich competed in Paris less than eight months after having a baby.

“I don’t know (how I did it), you will have to ask my coach,” said Pernheim Goodrich, who lost two previous bronze medal matches at the Games.

“My daughter is here (in Paris), but she is in the hotel because it is very noisy here. My family has been great helping me.

“I wanted this (medal) so much. It just says that I shouldn’t give up. I didn’t give up and here I am with a medal.”

Home hero

It can only be Sandrine Martinet. 

She might not have won her gold medal match against Kazakhstan’s Akmaral Nauatbek, as two waza-ari in the space of just over two minutes sealed the contest for her impressive opponent.

But the 41-year-old Parisian certainly won the hearts of the home crowd in the atmospheric Champ de Mars Arena, as they roared her name before and after the contest on an unforgettable afternoon.

“It is the most magnificent medal of the five medals I’ve got,” reflected Martinet, who was competing at her sixth Paralympic Games and won gold at Rio 2016.

“It has been extremely difficult to get it because I had big health issues for a year. It's been really, really hard to be here.    

“She (Nauatbke) has really been the best since she entered the circuit. I don't have any regrets. The public have been amazing, everyone around me has been fantastic during all my preparation. I will keep incredible memories from that, and I am very, very proud of this beautiful silver medal.”