Half-Heavyweight (≤72 kilograms), Women

Ingrid Berghmans competed, therefore Ingrid Berghmans won. Thus was the status of women’s judo throughout most of the 1980s. The Belgian Berghmans was the greatest female judoka in the pre-Olympic days of the sport. She was a six-time world champion, winning the open class in 1980, 1982, 1984, and 1986, and adding golds in half-heavyweight in 1984 and another in 1989, after the Seoul demonstration events. She added five other medals at the World Championships, often competing in both the Open Class and either heavyweight or half-heavyweight. For her many titles, Berghmans was an eight-time Belgian female sportsperson of the year during the 1980s, missing only in 1981 and 1987. In Seoul Berghmans won the event fairly easily, taking all matches by ippon, with her longest match taking only 3:01 in her pool final against Japan’s Yoko Tanabe, who was thought to be her biggest challenger. In the final Berghmans defeated Korea’s Bae Mi-Jung, who never again appeared on the podium at a major international, winning by ippon in 2:31. By the time of the 1988 Olympics, Berghmans was somewhat in the twilight of her career, and was helped in Seoul by the absence of Dutchwoman Irene de Kok, who had defeated her in the final of this class at both the 1986 and 1987 World Championships, but was injured and did not compete in Seoul.