The incredible bet is successful. On the same day, the Japanese Abe siblings – eagerly awaited for their home Olympics – won two gold medals on Sunday, July 25. Thus Uta, 21, won the title of – 52 kilos to the detriment of the French Amandine Buchard.
Barely a few minutes later, in the legendary Nippon Budokan, his 23-year-old brother, Hifumi, obtained his first gold medal by winning the final of the Tokyo Olympics judo tournament in the – 66 kilos category. facing Georgian Vazha Margvelashvili. At 21, Uta Abe now has an Olympic gold medal and two world titles. Hifumi Abe can boast of having the same track record as her younger sister.
For the first time in history, a brother and sister won a gold medal on the same day. A feat they owe to a common determination and a healthy rivalry. “We encourage each other all the time. And even if we don’t speak about it directly, we can feel it without using words ”, Uta recently explained.
Privilege of the eldest, it was Hufumi who was the first to set foot on the tatami mats; he was 6 years old, and it wasn’t long before his sister, 3 years younger, joined him. Judo was not obvious to them, however, their father, Koji, a firefighter by trade, seeing them rather play the piano. But Uta was determined, especially as she quickly showed a few predispositions. Some even predicted him more future than his brother with the kimono, even if the two regularly dominated their opponents in the youth categories.
A gold family
With the seniors, it was the same. In 2017, Hifumi won her first world title. The following year he did it again, joined by his sister for a golden double in Baku. “My goal in Baku, more than winning a second consecutive title, was for us both to win, brother and sister,” Hifumi had explained at the time of this double coronation. “When my sister won, I then got on the tatami for the final even more motivated”, he added at the time. Unfortunately for them, at the 2019 Worlds, Hifumi had to settle for the bronze medal, leaving her sister alone at the top of the world hierarchy.
The Abe family therefore kept this golden double for their Games at home. For his Olympic qualification, brother Hifumi had suffered: he had finally snatched his ticket to Tokyo after an incredible play-off that lasted twenty-four minutes against the world champion, Joshiro Maruyama, in December 2020. One of the youngest judokas in history to be crowned world champion (at 20 years and 20 days, August 29, 2017) won the Olympic title in front of his sister.
Present not far from the tatami during his brother’s final, Uta did not fail to exult at the end of the fight. Hifumi Abe had launched his attacks against Vazha Margvelashvili. And it was on a waza-ari – which he was on the verge of transforming into an ippon -, after two minutes of fighting, that he won.
?? The Japanese Hifumi Abe touches on the Olympic dream. The 23-year-old judoka wins gold for the first… https://t.co/4y40q4BMJe
With these two gold medals obtained on the same day, the siblings enter the history of Olympism. We know what they will discuss during family meals …