Tadahiro Nomura
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Born |
December 10, 1974 (age 42) Kōryō, Nara, Japan |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Alma mater | Tenri University | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Medal record
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Tadahiro Nomura (野村 忠宏 Nomura Tadahiro?, born December 10, 1974 in Kōryō, Nara, Japan) is one of the most famous judo competitors in Japan. He is the only judoka in the world who has won three Olympic gold medals in a row, all in the extra lightweight (-60 kg) division.
Nomura was born into a family of judoka. His grandfather was a local judo instructor, and his father was the coach of Shinji Hosokawa, who won a gold medal at the 1984 Summer Olympics. Nomura's uncle, Toyokazu Nomura, was also a gold medalist at the 1972 Summer Olympics in the (-70 kg) division.
Nomura began learning judo at his grandfather's dojo at age six. He was successful in several local and national level competitions during high school and junior-high school, and entered Tenri University in 1993. He won the All-Japan Selected judo championships for his weight class in April, 1996, to gain a spot on the Japanese olympic team for the 1996 Summer Olympics held in Atlanta, United States. Though relatively unknown at the world level at the time, he won his first olympic gold medal on July 26, 1996, defeating Girolamo Giovinazzo by seoi nage.
Nomura swept the All-Japan Selected judo championships again in 1997, and won a gold medal at the 1997 World Judo Championships in Paris to reinforce his position as the premier competitor at his weight class. After winning the All-Japan Selected judo championships for the third consecutive year in 1998, he injured his left knee in the Jigoro Kano Cup semi-finals on January 9, 1999, and was forced to retire from the competition. He did not participate in competitions for the rest of the year to recover from this injury and to complete his degree in health education.
...
Wikipedia