Half-Middleweight (≤63 kilograms), Women

France was rooting for Clarisse Agbegnenou, the defending gold medalist, who was hoping to become only the second woman to defend an Olympic judo gold medal in this class, after Japan’s Ayumi Tanimoto in 2004-08. Agbegnenou was a six-time World Champion in the class, winning in 2014, 2017-2019, 2021, and 2023. Another favorite was Canadian Catherine Beauchemin-Pinard, a bronze medalist in the class at Tokyo 2020, who was world ranked #1 coming into Paris.

Beauchemin-Pinard started strongly but she lost her quarter-final to Slovenia’s Andreja Leški, and then lost in the repêchage to Kosovo’s Laura Fazliu to eliminate any chance of a medal.

Agbegnenou looked good in the early rounds, but Leški took her down in the semi-finals by waza ari at 3:45, by ko-uchi-gari after video review by referees. Leški would go on to win the gold medal, winning the final match over Mexico’s Prisca Awiti. Awiti was the first to lead the match, with one waza ari at 0:27. Then Leški quickly scored two waza ari to win by ippon at 1:44. Both Leški and Awiti had won international medals, but the finalists were relatively unheralded.

The bronze medals went to Agbegnenou and Fazliu. It was the fourth Olympic medal for Agbegnenou, who had also taken silver in the class at Rio 2016. She would later add a gold medal in the mixed team event in Paris. Fazliu’s bronze medal matched the one she had won at the 2024 World Championships.