Judoka Christa Deguchi wins Canada’s first gold medal at Paris 2024

World number one Christa Deguchi now has the one thing that was missing from her trophy case: an Olympic medal.

Deguchi claimed gold in the women’s 57kg judo event at Paris 2024 after facing world number three Huh Mimi of South Korea in the final. She is Canada’s first ever Olympic champion in judo.

Scoreless through the four minutes of regulation, the match went into golden score time aka sudden death overtime. With almost two minutes gone in the extra period, Deguchi took a second shido (penalty), which matched the two that Huh had accumulated, meaning if either took another penalty then the other would win the gold. Less than a minute later, Huh took another shido for a false attack making Deguchi the Olympic champion.

Deguchi had advanced to the final after defeating France’s home favourite, Sarah Leonie Cysique, in the semifinals. After neither judoka scored in the four minutes of regulation, the match went into golden score time. After more than four minutes of extra time, Cysique took her third shido (penalty) of the match, which handed the win to Deguchi. It could easily have gone the other way, with Deguchi having received two shidos.

In an interesting twist, it had been Cysique who defeated another Canadian, Jessica Klimkait, in the 57kg semifinal three years ago at Tokyo 2020 when Klimkait accumulated three shidos. Klimkait went on to win bronze, which was the first Olympic medal by a Canadian woman in judo.

Deguchi was already Canada’s most successful female judoka. In 2019 she became the first Canadian to ever win a world title in judo. She became world champion again in 2023. Earlier this year, she won silver at the IJF World Championships, losing in the final to Huh.