Judoka Martti Puumalainen was faced with a tough choice in the fall of 2018: the 21-year-old athlete’s career would continue under new conditions or end immediately.
The man from Puuma was mentally and physically tired. The reason was the constant weight lifting. In martial arts, they refer to the competition weight, which is usually somewhat lower than the athlete’s normal weight.
Puumalainen competed in the category of under 100 kilograms, although his live weight was usually 108–109 kilograms. Almost ten kilos were enough to drop for each competition.
It was clear that this could not continue.
– I had two options: either I stop judo or weightlifting. However, judo is such a fun thing that I decided to go to the heavyweight division. If it didn’t work out, my own level would have been measured, Puumalainen recalls his situation five years ago.
In May 2023, Puumalainen will be among the top heavyweights in the world. He is 14th in the ranking list of his weight class and one of the medal candidates in the ongoing World Championships in Doha.
Return to the medal base?
Finnish judoka has not won a World Championship medal in the lifetime of Puumalainen, who was born in 1997. The previous and only medal, bronze, is Juha Salonen handwriting from 1981.
Salonen lost his opening match at the World Championships to one of the best judokas of all time To Yasuhiro Yamashitabut the Finn reached the bronze through the collection rounds.
Puumalainen’s goal is to reach at least as far on Saturday as Salonen did 41 years ago.
– A medal is the goal. I have been able to fight all the best in my division and have been able to throw them in sparring. It bodes well. The preparation has gone smoothly, Puumalainen says.
Puumalainen perfected his WC fitness in the mountains of Slovenia, in Rogla, located about one and a half kilometers away. There is less oxygen in the high air, thanks to which the number of red blood cells in the blood that carry oxygen to the body’s tissues increases. It, in turn, increases the athlete’s endurance under stress.
The pattern mentioned above cannot be done easily, but the exercises are harder than usual due to the lack of oxygen. In Slovenia, the training intensity was harder than ever before.
– I rarely count how many days of camp are left, but there I started to feel homesick, Puumalainen says.
Whether it was tournaments or the time between them, Puumalainen’s weight has stabilized at 130 kilos. Getting to my current weight has been anything but easy.
Amounts to be fed
Until the fall of 2018, the Puumalainen competed in the semi-heavy division, where judokas are allowed to weigh 91–100 kilograms.
Unlike all other weight classes, there is no upper weight limit in the heavyweight division, but all judokas weigh more than one hundred kilograms.
As stated at the beginning, Puumalainen’s weight was 108–109 kilograms outside of competitions five years ago. Because competing in the heavyweight division was out of the question. To put it in a caricature, at less than 110 kilograms, Puumalainen would have been a throwing bag in new circles.
Nowadays, successful judokas in the heavy category are mostly 120-140 kilos, but there are even heavier cases.
For example, brass Rafael Silva is one of the most successful heavyweights of the last decade, whose weight has been up to 170 kilos in competition.
Silva is 203 centimeters tall, so he is naturally heavier than the 185-centimeter Finn.
– I thought at the beginning that my weight would be 120-125 kilos, but the weight brings a certain kind of stoutness. If I were, say, 190 centimeters tall, I could be a little lighter, because that way I would benefit from the dimension. Now I have to be a little bigger and stronger because of my “certain shortcoming”, says Puumalainen.
When Puumalainen started his heavyweight project in the fall of 2018, gaining strength became the number one priority and judo took a back seat.
At the end of the year, the weight increased to 115 kilos, and 120 kilos was lost in May 2019. In November of the same year, the scale showed 125, from which the increase to the current 130 kilos happened slowly during 2020.
Puumalainen emphasizes that fat plays a role in weight gain.
– As a pure athlete, it is not possible to gain 20 kilos of muscle in such a fast time.
Food has played a big role in the change – and in many ways a difficult one.
Puumalainen says that he had not used supplements before 2018. When he had decided to change his weight class, twice a day carbohydrate and protein drinks and creatine entered the picture. In addition, dinner table habits went to a new faith.
– When I used to eat one full plate at meals, now I had to eat two. I had to eat just by eating. It wasn’t always fun. Breakfast in particular has always been a bit challenging for me, and when I suddenly had to shove food in my face, it was difficult. Not a good memory at all, Puumalainen states.
Medal places on the poster
However, the change in weight class hit the right spot, as the Judo Federation hired a Slovenian as the head coach Rok Draksic exactly in 2020.
The multiple EC medalist and Olympic visitor has whipped Puumalai forward in a way that the 2018 version would have frozen.
– After Roki joined us, we immediately trained harder and more than before. Fortunately, I had gained my current weight before that, because with that training intensity it would have been difficult to gain extra kilos, says Puumalainen.
As a result of weight gain, the fat that entered Puumalainen’s body has slowly turned into muscle since 2020. The development in sportsmanship has also been reflected in the results on the tatami.
At the beginning of 2021, Puumalainen knocked down the aforementioned brass giant Silva, who won two Olympic bronze medals and three World Championship medals in the years 2012–2017, in the Grand Slam tournament.
A Frenchman is known as the ruler of that era Teddy Rinerwho won all 154 matches he played from September 2010 to February 2020.
– Riner brought athleticism to the center as a 130-kilogram competitor. Israel did the same Or SassoonPuumalainen says, referring to the 2016 Olympic bronze medalist.
The transition phase of the weight class is also indicated by the fact that in 2016 the Czech Republic, which won the Olympic gold in the light heavyweight category Lukas Krpalek celebrated Olympic gold in August 2021 as only a 110-kilogram heavyweight.
The year 2021 was a breakthrough for Puumalainen, as he finished seventh on the World Championship mat. The bangs were not enough for the Tokyo Olympics organized in the same year, because the leveling up came too late in terms of the Olympic ranking, which lasts almost two years.
In terms of the 2024 Paris Olympics, the situation looks good from Puumalainen’s point of view. Last year, Puumalainen was in medal matches four times at the Grand Slam level, which is the next in ranking right after the Olympic and World Championships.
Anyone can win
The World Championships are more difficult than the Olympics in the sense that the top countries get to choose two weight classes, in which they can enter an extra athlete in addition to the normal one.
For example, at the World Championships in Doha, 43 competitors from 35 countries compete in the men’s heavyweight division, while two years ago, only 22 competitors from 22 countries were seen on the Tokyo Olympics.
Japan, Uzbekistan, Brazil and the Netherlands, known for their tough judoka, have nominated two athletes for the heavyweight division in Doha.
However, Puumalainen assures that he is ready for the challenge. The ninth place in the Olympic ranking also speaks for itself. Its value is only emphasized when you take into account the competitive situation, which has tightened considerably in this decade.
– In the last decade, in every competition it was practically clear who would win (Riner). And of the three duller medalists, at most one was sometimes a surprise. Now the palette is always deliciously relaxed when going to the Games, Puumalainen says.
In this decade, one Olympic Games and two World Championships have been held, where the 12 medals that were distributed have gone to 11 athletes. Reflecting the development of Puumalainen in recent years, it is not far-fetched to think that the Finn will join the list of medalists on Saturday.
– If you had to fight 2020’s Martti Puumalainen, that match would probably last less than a minute. He was still such a boy. Now you can call yourself a man.