GB Judo

[Rafa Maciel 1,606]

Ahead of the 2025 season kicking off, GB Judo have announced some changes to their performance squad

 

Going into 2024, the Olympic World Class Performance Program was:

 

Olympic Podium:

Chelsie Giles (-52Kg): World Ranking 8

Nekoda Smythe-Davis (-57Kg): World Ranking 35

Lucy Renshall (-63Kg): World Ranking 14

Jemima Yeats-Brown (-70Kg): World Ranking 19

 

Olympic Podium Potential:

Kelly Peterson-Pollard (-70Kg): World Ranking 18

Emma Reid (-78Kg): World Ranking 14

Natalie Powell (-78Kg): World Ranking 38

Stuart McWatt (-90Kg): World Ranking 110

Lachlan Moorhead (-81Kg): World Ranking 35

Eric Ham (-73Kg): World Ranking 95

Jamal Petgrave (-90Kg): World Ranking 54

Rhys Thompson (-100Kg): World Ranking 38

Samuel Hall (-66Kg): World Ranking 72

Amy Platten (-48Kg): World Ranking 174

Shelley Ludford (-78Kg): World Ranking 103

Ollie Barratt (-100Kg): World Ranking 95

Charlie Young (-66Kg): World Ranking 69

Harry Lovell-Hewitt (-100Kg): World Ranking 82

Wesley Greenidge (+100Kg): World Ranking 87

Max Gregory (-100Kg): World Ranking 187

Michael Fryer (-66Kg): World Ranking 66

 

Olympic Programme:

Sian Bobrowska (-52Kg): World Ranking 188

Caitlin Barber (-48Kg): World Ranking 167

Isobel Kitchen (-66Kg): World ranking 212

Lewis Fryer

Summer Shaw (-48Kg): World Ranking 106 - Seems to be a lot of buzz about her and she's been flagged as 'one to watch.' Could/should definitely be in contention for the TB Squad for LA.  

Charlotte Jenman (-52Kg): World Ranking 282

 

Since the Olympics, 2 of the squad have annoucned their retirement from the sport:

 

Stuart McWatt's retirement was confirmed at the beginning of last month. Unfortunately, a series of injuries meant he was never really able to realise his full potential.

 

Natalie Powell's retirement was announced in October. Holding the honour of being the first British female judoka to be ranked world number 1, Powell was on Team GB at both Rio and Tokyo.

 

New additions to the WCPP:

Ben Levy (-73Kg): World Ranking 331

Ethan Nairne (-73Kg): World Ranking 138

Lola Hodson (

Chloe Link (-57Kg): World Ranking 168

Eryk Neumann (-81Kg): World Ranking 443

Charlotte Jenman - she's been announced as new addition but she was already on the sqaud according to the announcement made in Jan-24. 

Charlie Ayre (-60Kg) World Ranking 187

 

If the normal schedule applies, then British Judo should confirm the funding level for the team at some point next month. 

[Rich 23]

That looks like a lot of very mediocre (on an international level) athletes getting support. I assume the funding is extremely minimal? Only Giles' world ranking suggests an athlete in the right ballpark to do something significant and even then, I don't get the impression that Judo is a sport where the world number 8 is likely to win an Olympic medal (if the Olympics were tomorrow)?

Edited December 15, 2024 by Rich

[Rafa Maciel 1,606]

  On 12/15/2024 at 7:47 AM, Rich said:

That looks like a lot of very mediocre (on an international level) athletes getting support. I assume the funding is extremely minimal? Only Giles' world ranking suggests an athlete in the right ballpark to do something significant and even then, I don't get the impression that Judo is a sport where the world number 8 is likely to win an Olympic medal (if the Olympics were tomorrow)?

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To be fair, I think both Giles and Renshall have been ranked #1 within the last year and the current ranking for most of the squad is depressed by the fact that a lot of them haven't competed in the second half of the year.

 

Overall, pretty much everyone on the list is competitive at the Continental Open level. At the Grand Prix level, most of the women in the podium and podium potential group would be in the mix for either a medal or extended podium. Both Giles and Renshall were pretty consistent in the run up to Paris when it came to the Grand Slam events. Nobody on the men's side covered themselves in glory this year and unfortunately nobody performed anywhere near their best when it mattered at the Olympics.

 

I'd guess that the big benefit of being in the WCPP is access to the central support and training facilities at the National Training Centre. 

[Andry84 104]

  On 12/15/2024 at 7:47 AM, Rich said:

That looks like a lot of very mediocre (on an international level) athletes getting support. I assume the funding is extremely minimal? Only Giles' world ranking suggests an athlete in the right ballpark to do something significant and even then, I don't get the impression that Judo is a sport where the world number 8 is likely to win an Olympic medal (if the Olympics were tomorrow)?

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Word number 8 can win an Olympic gold medal, I can speak about Italy and if i Remember well boh Quintavalle in 2008 and Basile in 2016 were outside top 10 in ranking, Basile far away from top 10 , and both became Olympic champions

[Rich 23]

Fair enough, both. But it just seems a bit strange to fund so many with such limited Olympic outcome over a long period. I'd be delighted to see something meaningful come out of it but, on a surface level, other sports have not been shown as much patience.

 

[Rafa Maciel 1,606]

 athletes missing from the first three IJF World Tour events. I know it's not unusual for athletes to have a quiet year after an Olympic Games but the lack of activity from all of the top tier of the GB team is strange

[El Analyzer 230]

I didn't get why athletes are not playing specially in Judo, if their feet are not on the mat and are not fighting against different schools how would they improve and keep the form.

[Rafa Maciel 1,606]

Finally, a bit of a positive result to report for GB Judo as Emma Reid takes silver at the Upper Austria Grand Prix. The rest of the (very) small squad lost in the first round