Half-Heavyweight (≤78 kilograms), Women

The last three World Championships in this class had been won by Noriko Anno and in 1997 she was World Champion in the middleweight class. Her Olympic record was quite spotty, however, as she had lost in the first round of both the 1996 and 2000 Olympics, and had not come close to winning a medal. But Athina was different. She won her first match by ippon but was then pushed in the pool semi and final. In the class final she faced China’s Liu Xia. Liu was not well known internationally but had finished second in the 2004 Asian Games. The final was tight throughout, but Anno won the gold medal by ippon with only 22 seconds remaining in the match.