Christa Deguchi has won Canada’s first gold medal of the Paris Olympics with a victory in the under-57 kilogram judo event.
Deguchi, the world’s top-ranked female judoka, defeated Mimi Huh in the final when the South Korean was flagged for a false attack in sudden-death overtime, giving her a match-ending third penalty.
It was a measure of revenge for Deguchi, who lost to Huh in the under-57 kg final at the 2024 world championships.
Deguchi, a two-time world champion, is the first-ever Canadian Olympic champion in judo.
Christa Deguchi won Canada’s first gold medal of Paris 2024, earning victory in the women’s under-57 kilogram judo final.
She advanced to the final with a win over crowd favourite Sarah-Leonie Cysique of France. Cysique went on to beat Georgia’s Eteri Liparteliani for bronze.
Deguchi, 28, lives and trains in Japan, the country of her birth. She has competed for Canada since 2017 through her Canadian father.
Despite being the No. 1 judoka in the world in the women’s 57 kg class, Deguchi did not have an easy road to the Games. She needed to outperform fellow Canadian and world No. 2, Jessica Klimkait, a bronze medallist in Tokyo, to book her ticket to Paris.