Half-Heavyweight (≤78 kilograms), Women

Israeli Inbar Lanir came to Paris 2024 as the world’s top ranked judoka in the class. She was the 2023 World Champion, had won the 2023 World Masters, and had won a bronze medal in the mixed team event at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Shori Hamada was the defending gold medalist but was only the third-ranked Japanese judoka in the class, and Japan would put forward Rika Takayama to represent them.

Anna-Maria Wagner (GER) had won the recent 2024 World Championships at 78 kg and was a World Champion in 2021. She had won a bronze medal in the class at Tokyo 2020, losing the final to Hamada. Italy’s Alice Bellandi competed at Tokyo 2020 in the 70 kg class but had moved up to 78 kg since then. She was runner-up to Wagner at the 2024 World Championships and also won a bronze medal at the Worlds in 2023. She was world ranked #3 as of June 2024.

This class went mostly according to chalk, as the favorites advanced, with the exception of France’s Madeleine Malonga, who won gold in the team event and was a silver medalist at Tokyo, but lost in her first match against Portugal’s Patrícia Sampaio. The final came down to Bellandi against Lanir but there was not a lot of action, with Bellandi winning by waza-ari using sode-tsurikomi-goshi, although it was ultimately decided when Lanir received her third shido at 3:26.

Takayama lost her quarter-final match against Wagner, and both would advance to the bronze medal matches, but neither would win. Takayama lost to Sampaio by ippon after two waza aris, while China’s Ma Zhenzhao defeated Wagner by waza-ari in extra time.