Lightweight (≤71 kilograms), Men

Japan’s Toshihiko Koga was expected to win this class. He was the 1989 and 1991 World Champion, had won five consecutive titles at the Kodokan Cup, and six consecutive victories at the All-Japan Championships. Veteran Hungarian judoka Bertalan Hajtós was considered the top European, having medaled at the European Championships back in 1985, and winning in 1986, but he had not yet made the podium at the World Championships. In the early rounds, he was the most impressive fighter, winning four straight matches by ippon. Koga struggled to make the final after injuring his knee in a sparring session before the Olympics. The final came down to hantei, with Koga winning by yusei-gachi, which surprised many in the crowd who thought Hajtós had won. Koga would retire after Barcelona, but returned in 1995 to win the Worlds in half-middleweight and also won a silver at the 1996 Olympics in half-middleweight.

The day before this event, Israel’s Yael Arad became the first Israeli athlete to win an Olympic medal, when she placed second in the women’s half-middleweight division. Arad dedicated her medal to “the eleven” – the 11 Israelis who had been cowardly murdered by Black September terrorists at the 1972 Olympics. In this class, Israel’s Shay-Oren Smadga won a bronze medal, the first Olympic medal won by an Israeli man.