Canada's Christa Deguchi smiles as she shows her gold medal after her win in the women's under-57 kg judo at the 2024 Summer Olympics.Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press
Three years ago during the last Summer Olympics, Christa Deguchi was at home heartbroken. Now, in Paris, the Japanese-Canadian judoka has seized Canada’s first gold medal of the Games, and its first-ever Olympic gold in the sport.
The 28-year-old is the new Olympic champion of the women’s under-57-kilogram weight class. She beat South Korea’s Mimi Huh in the gold-medal final on Monday, just hours after winning an epic semi-final versus host-country hope Sarah-Léonie Cysique.
It’s the fourth medal of the Paris Summer Games for Canada.
“I still can’t believe that I’ve done it,” Deguchi said, laughing and smiling despite her face being covered in red bruises and scratches from the bouts. “It’s been a long journey for me.”
Deguchi was born and raised in Japan, where she practised judo since she was three years old. She made the move to compete for Canada, her father’s birth country, in 2017 and has since become Canada’s most decorated female judoka. But she lives and trains in Japan.
Deguchi is also a two-time world champion (2019 and 2023) and 2024 world silver medalist. From 2023 to 2024, she was a top-two finisher in nine of her 10 grand slam events and took bronze in the other, making her a solid bet for the podium in Paris.
Deguchi had endured a neck-and-neck battle just to earn the coveted sole Olympic spot in the under-57-kilogram women’s weight class for a Canadian in Paris. Each country can only bring one judoka, and Canada has the world’s best two in this weight class. The other is Jessica Klimkait of Whitby, Ont.
It was Klimkait who gained the spot three years ago to compete in Tokyo – where she earned a bronze medal – while Deguchi stayed home heartsick. This was Deguchi’s time. And she has made history.
On Monday in Paris, Deguchi was perfect. She competed inside a packed and deafening Champ-de-Mars Arena in Paris, at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, with judo-loving fans waving the flags of France, banging their feet and raucously supporting the French judokas.
Judo is wildly popular in France, its fans knowledgeable. Japan is the only country with more Olympic judo medals than France.
Deguchi, the world’s top rated judoka in her weight class, had a bye in the first round. Then she needed just over one minute to win her first match, beating Panama’s Kristine Jiménez by Ippon to advance into the quarter-finals.
Her second match of the day was more challenging and went to a golden score before she dispatched Marica Perisic of Serbia.
That set up a semi-final showdown with Cysique, the reigning Olympic silver medalist and the same woman who three years ago dashed the gold-medal dreams of Klimkait at the Tokyo Olympics, handing her a heartbreaking semi-final loss.
There may not have been a louder venue in Paris on Monday than what Deguchi faced when duelling the French woman. Their contest was electric.
Deguchi went on the attack, taking every effort to put Cysique down, trying to push the French woman into a mistake while not making one herself. It stretched on to Golden Score. They grappled like gladiators, exhaustively, both sweat-drenched and breathless. In the end, Deguchi had more attacks and outlasted her opponent.
The French booed, but Cysique knew she’d been beat. The two exhausted opponents fell into a prolonged hug.
Cysique went on to earn a bronze medal. Judo awards two bronze medals, and the other went to Japan’s Haruka Funakubo.
Deguchi’s father is from Winnipeg. Asked how much time she has spent in Canada, she said mostly it’s been visits to her grandmother and joked about the Winnipeg cold. Her younger sister Kelly Deguchi also competes for Canada, in the women’s under-52-kilogram category. She lost her opening-round match this week in Paris.
Deguchi thanked Judo Canada for recruiting her. She had been part of Japan’s national-team program, but she wasn’t winning competitions there. She said she was regularly fourth or fifth place there.
“I was a college student and I was having a tough time. We were talking a lot about Canada and my family in Canada,” Deguchi said. “I just thought, ‘Why don’t I fight for Canada and hopefully win a gold medal some day?’ And I did it today.”
She had a Canadian judo bronze medalist in her coaching box in Paris – Antoine Valois-Fortier, who earned his medal at the 2010 London Olympics.
“He cried for me when I won the Olympics. I don’t know if it’s okay to say this?” she said politely. “He celebrated a lot for me, and if he wasn’t here today I think I couldn’t win.”
Deguchi knew if she was at her best at the 2024 Olympics, gold was certainly possible. Her only regret was winning the final match not by throwing Huh to the mat as she had hoped, but via a penalty to Huh.
“It wasn’t like the best moment, but still,” Deguchi said. “I won.”
She admits that back in 2017 it took some time to get used to wearing the Maple Leaf. Now it is dear to her.
“Now I feel comfortable,” she said, caressing the Canadian Olympic logo on her uniform. “I’m proud this Maple Leaf will go on the highest part of the podium.”
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