Half-Lightweight (≤52 kilograms), Women

Japan’s Uta Abe was the defending gold medalist. At Tokyo 2020, she and her brother Hifumi Abe had both won gold medals as half-lightweights and on the same day. Uta Abe was World Champion in this class in 2018-19 and 2022-23. She was expected to be challenged in Paris by Kosovan Distria Krasniqi, who had won gold in Tokyo at 48 kg. Another contender was France’s Amandine Buchard, the silver medalist in this class at Tokyo and five-times bronze medalist at the World Championships since 2014.

Abe won her first match by ippon, but then was upset in the second round by Uzbeki Diyora Keldiyorova, the silver medalist in this class at the 2023 and the recent 2024 World Championships. At 2:14, Abe first scored a waza-ari by uchi-mata, but lost by ippon at 3:04 by tani-otoshi.The defeat put Abe out of medal contention.

Keldiyorova continued to win and faced Krasniqi in the final. Keldiyorova scored a waza-ari at 1:36 by seoi-nage. That held up for the victory at the end of regulation and Keldiyorova had the first gold by a Uzbeki woman at the Summer Olympics, although Lina Cheryazova had won gold in 1994 in freestyle aerials, at the Winter Olympics. It was the first medal of any color for a Uzbeki in women’s judo. Krasnigi won the fourth Olympic medal for Kosovo, all of which had come in women’s judo. Krasniqi became the first Kosovan to win two medals, silver in 2020 and gold in 2024. The fifth medal for Kosovo would come two days later, with Laura Fazliu’s bronze in the half-middleweight judo class.

In the bronze medal matches, Buchard, who had lost the semi-final to Keldiyorova, defeated Hungary’s Réka Pupp by waza-ari in extra time, at 7:08, by kata-guruma. Brazilian Larissa Pimenta had lost to Krasniqi in the semi-finals, but took bronze by defeating Italy’s Odette Giuffrida in extra time, after Giuffrida was penalized for her third shido at 8:03. This match was very tactical, as Pimenta took two shidos for non-combativity during the first four minutes, and Giuffrida took all three shidos during extra time and was then disqualified by hansoku-make. Pimenta won Brazil’s 26th judo medal but this was their first ever in this event.