Judo at the 2004 Summer Olympics took place in the Ano Liossia Olympic Hall and featured 368 judoka competing for 14 gold medals with seven different weight categories in both the men's and women's competitions. Japan dominated the event by taking 8 gold and 2 silver medals.
Arash Miresmaeili is an Iranian judoka. He now serves as the President of the Iranian Judo Federation.
Shay-Oren Smadja is an Israeli judo coach and former competitive judoka. Smadja won an Olympic bronze medal in 1992 Summer Olympics, making him the first Israeli male to win an Olympic medal, and the second Israeli overall after Yael Arad who won silver in judo the day before.
The International Judo Federation (IJF) is the international governing body for judo, founded in July 1951. Today the IJF has 200 National Federations on all continents. There are over 20 million people around the globe who practice judo, according to the IJF.
The World Judo Championships are the highest level of international judo competition, along with the Olympic judo competition. The championships are held once every year by the International Judo Federation, and qualified judoka compete in their respective categories as representatives of their home countries. Team competitions have also been held since 1994. The men's championships began in 1956, though the format and periodicity of the championships have changed over time. The last edition of the championships took place in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates in 2024.
Vitaly Valeryevich Makarov is a Russian judoka who competed in the men's lightweight category. He was a 2004 Olympic silver medalist, 2001 World Champion, and earned medals in several other international tournaments. He was a 1994 World Junior Champion and has been a coach on the Russian national judo team.
Teddy Pierre-Marie Riner is a French judoka. He has won eleven World Championships gold medals, the first and only judoka to do so, and three Olympic gold medals. He has also won five gold medals at the European Championships. He was a member of the Levallois Sporting Club before joining Paris Saint-Germain in August 2017.
Toyokazu Nomura is a retired judoka who competed in the half-middleweight (–70 kg) division.
Naohisa Takato is a Japanese judoka.
Sagi Aharon Muki is an Israeli Olympic and former world champion half-middleweight judoka. Muki is the 2019 World Champion. He also won the 2015 and 2018 European championships. In the mixed team event at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Muki was a member of the Israeli team that won the bronze medal.
Or "Ori" Sasson is a retired Israeli Olympic judoka. He won a bronze medal in the +100 kg category at the 2016 Summer Olympics and another one at the 2020 Summer Olympics. He is the second of two Israelis to win two Olympic medals.
Saeid Mollaei is an Iranian half-middleweight judoka. He was born in Tehran to ethnic Azerbaijani parents originally from Khoy. In 2001, at the age of 10, he entered the Persian Gulf Judo School by Dr. Mehrdad Hassanzadeh, a judo instructor. Iranian authorities ordered Mollaei to intentionally lose in the semi-final at the Tokyo 2019 World Championships, so as to avoid a potential match in the finals against Israeli 2019 world champion Sagi Muki. In August 2019, he moved to Europe with a two-year visa from Germany, saying he was afraid to return to Iran after exposing and criticizing its pressure on him to deliberately lose in the World Championships. In December 2019, he became a citizen of Mongolia. He dedicated his 2020 Olympic medal to Mongolia and Mongol People and to Israel. From May 2022 on, Mollaei represents Azerbaijan.
Daria Hennadiyivna Bilodid is a Ukrainian judoka. She is the 2019 World and the 2019 European gold medalist in the 48 kg division. In 2021, she won one of the bronze medals in the women's 48 kg event at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan. She is also the 2024 European gold medalist in the 57 kg division.
Hidayet Heydarov is an Azerbaijani judoka. He won the gold medal in the men's 73 kg event at the 2024 World Judo Championships held in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. He also won a gold medal at the 2017, 2022, 2023 and 2024 European Judo Championships.
Diane Bell is a British former judoka. She won the 56–61 kg event at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, but at the time women's judo was still a demonstration sport, so unlike the men Bell did not enter the list of Olympic medalists in judo. She also won two World Judo Championships, a Commonwealth Games gold and three European Judo Championships.
Matthias Casse is a Belgian judoka who won the bronze medal at the 2020 Summer Olympics.
Christa Deguchi is a Japanese-born Canadian judoka. She is the elder sister of Kelly Deguchi, also a judoka.
Michael Korrel is a Dutch judoka.
Jessica Klimkait is a Canadian Judoka who competes in the women's 57 kg category. In 2021 she became Canada's second judo world champion, defeating Momo Tamaoki of Japan in the women's lightfoot (57 kg) final at the championships in Budapest, Hungary; the win also qualified her for the Tokyo Olympic Games. She won one of the bronze medals in the women's 57 kg event at the 2020 Summer Olympics.
Uzbekistan 
(2019)
(2015)
