Extra-Lightweight (≤48 kilograms), Women

Japan’s Ryoko Tamura had lost the 1992 Olympic final to France’s Cécile Nowak, but was undefeated in the four years since. In the interim she had won two World Championships, the 1994 Asian Games, and the 1995 World University Games title. Tamura easily made it to the final. There she faced North Korea’s Kye Sun-Hui, a 16-year-old unknown. PDR Korea (North) had not competed internationally for several years but the International Judo Federation gave them one wildcard entry in 1996, which went to Kye. The final went the distance but in a huge upset, Kye won, stopping Tamura’s 84-match winning streak. Tamura would continue to dominate the division – winning gold medals in 2000 and 2004, and every World Championship from 1993-2007. Kye also became a top judoka, moving up in weight and winning four World Championships in lightweight from 2001-2007. At the Olympics she would win a bronze medal in 2000 in half-lightweight and a silver in 2004 in the lightweight division. Other than Tamura, the best known judoka in this class in 1996 was the US entrant, Hillary Wolf. She placed =9th in Atlanta and would compete again in 2000 at Sydney, but she was best known as an actress, starring as Macaulay Culkin’s sister in Home Alone.