Judo’s Olympic qualifier is exceptionally raw. The contestants train at the extremes all the time and need to be in good shape for two years to track around the world at international competitions.
Petri Hänninen,
Timo Uusitalo
Judo’s raucous Olympic qualifiers will begin at the Mongolian Grand Slam during Midsummer June 24-26. on the day. From then on, qualifiers will be held throughout the year until the summer of 2024. The Paris Olympics will be held from 26 July to 11 August 2024.
The number one judge in the Republic Martti Puumalainen, 25, unlike other Finns, the financing is in order. Its World Cup seventh openly admits.
– I am working for the Defense Forces, and I am also supported by the Olympic Committee, the Judo Federation and the club. My job is not stuck with funding. Yes, I am quite sure that I will be there in Paris, Puumalainen cannons with his confident style.
Nine weeks after the knee surgery, Puumalainen participated for the first time in real activities at the Finnish Championships in Leapäälä Ideapark on May 7. However, the Finnish championship was not the most important thing.
– Make it easier! Credit to the knee is now one hundred percent. The aim is to take part in the big international competitions and collect Olympic points from there. You also have to think about the fact that sometimes you go to “easier” races. But every race is always a holiday. Points should not be thought of only, but of continuous development, Puumalainen says.
The Masters tournament, the World Championships and the Grand Slams are the major competitions in the category, where success brings the athlete a huge number of Olympic points. Winning a single match already gives you much more points than winning a smaller race. However, all the world’s champion athletes are always involved in the competition.
In practice, the best 16 in the weight class will qualify for one judo series at the Olympics – with the difference that only one competitor per country can be included.
In fact, rankings play a huge role even before the start of the judo Olympic qualifiers, because if a competitor is not in a good position and does not have good ranking points at the bottom, he will often be met in the first match by either the reigning world champion or one of the continent’s current champions.
Started in the fall of 2020 as head coach of the Judo Federation Rok Draksic has contributed to the demanding, good buzz for national team judos. The 34-year-old Draksic himself is an internationally merited hard-working professional. The contract for the six-time Slovenian European Championship medalist still covers the Paris Olympics.
Puumalainen gives praise to the coaching manager of the Judo Federation To Jaana Jokinen on the hiring and development of a foreign coach. Now the athletes are at the center and the future of the sport looks bright. The Sports Academy of the Helsinki Metropolitan Area – Urhea – also provides support and expert activities for the top athletes of the national team.
– Concentrating resources has been a good change. There are also a lot of judokas in Helsinki who may not train so determinedly – but are able to help as sparrers, Puumalainen says.
What fascinates Puumalainen about judo?
– In the struggle against a man, a man enters the deepest essence of humanity, grins your judocarp wide.
Will Finland return to the judo Olympic map after the slump in Tokyo?
Since 1972, judo has been permanently on the Olympic program. Finland does not have any medals for the global, big summer sport, but Finnish jockeys have been seen Simo Akrenius From Munich to Rio de Janeiro and 2016, when the colors of Finland still represented Juho Reinvall.
However, the Tokyo judo screen was too hard for Finns, and the 44-year-old Olympic judo tube for Finnish judokas ended last year.
The international spread of Judo is partly due to the fact that more than one nation was involved in athletics and swimming only at the Rio Olympics.
Jaana Jokinen (née Sundberg), the current coaching manager of the Judo Federation, who has played in the medal matches of the competition many times, knows how big the world of judo is.
– As a martial art, judo is very widespread. The countries invest in the sport financially, so the Finnish competitors are purely professional athletes. The background is tradition, strong systems and high-quality training concentrations. In Finland, on the other hand, judo is a small species and resources are smaller. But you can also succeed in Finland, as my own judo path and results have shown, Jokinen emphasizes.
– The Judo system is raw. The Judoka must be in good condition for two years and tour the world after the Games. Sometimes there is success and sometimes there may be periods of injury, but you still have to get back on tour as soon as possible, Jokinen describes the qualifying of the judoka dreaming of the Olympics.
The heavyweight is currently the most successful Finn on the world list Martti Puumalainen (wr 21.), under 81 pounds in a series match Oskari Mäkinen (wr 46.) and under 66 pounds Luke Saha (wr 70.). They also reach a hundred Turpal Djoukaev (-73 kg) and Emilia Kanerva (-63 kg).
According to Coaching Manager Jokinen, the Olympic venue does not depend on one success, but requires a steady performance.
– The hard road is coming, but we have a good team going. I believe that this gang will leave for Paris. We are not only dependent on Puumalainen.
– We do all things as professionally as possible and have drawn up good plans. In the covenant, we know what it takes to succeed. Of course, health and happiness are needed on the way, Jokinen knows.
“Sometimes it goes so that Pappa betalar”
Oskari Mäkinen is one of the hottest Finnish judos. He won a sensational silver at the Portuguese Grand Prix in January.
On the world list, “Osku” jumped from the 115th place in the flash to the top 50 with success. The cannon tournament and sharpened grips on the tatami immediately brought additional good to the 22-year-old promise.
– Long-term work with the help of your own personal trainers bears fruit. I have been training for many years and now the results are starting to come a little quietly.
– Judo has to be trained like a professional athlete, but in Finland judo is not just paid. At times it goes so that “pappa betalar”, but now I have gained success with new supporters. In addition, I work as a project assistant. Now I can go around the races I want to go to, Mäkinen says.
– The 2024 Olympics are the main goal. Usually (after qualifying) there are a couple of days of camps where you can measure your level properly. Then there are the separate Olympic training camps, which are a week long and there are top players from all over the world. Money is forcibly returned when you travel around, Mäkinen says.
Unfortunately, Mäkinen felt hard in the finishing camps and rolled his knees. Frontal ligament and spiral injuries were recently operated on and there is a rehabilitation period ahead – instead of an Olympic qualifier.
In addition to Puumalainen and Mäkinen, Luukas Saha, Turpal Djoukaev and Pihla Salonen.
Saha, 23, is an Olympic athlete who competed in a medal at the legendary Paris Grand Slam in February 2022. He had been in the Paris tournament for 30 years since the previous Finnish men’s medal match.
A couple of years younger, Djoukaev, 21, won a medal at the level of the judo Europe Open late last year in a series of 48 contestants in Malaga.
Salonen, 19, who weighed less than 57 kg, won bronze in the Europe Cup for under-21s in Spain at the end of May. Although the leap from juniors to the adult series is always considerable, even rapid progress can be expected from the promise of Pori.
Puumalainen, Saha and Valtteri I was. The trio set off from East Asia almost directly from a three-week camping period in which a tatami vibrates in Rocla, Slovenia, Porec, Croatia, and Baku, Azerbaijan.