The Legend: Tadahiro Nomura
Photo courtesy of TOSHIFUMI KITAMURA/AFP via Getty Images
This article is part of our “long article” requests through Patreon! A huge thank you to Alteroc (@crwate01) for this excellent topic suggestion.
In an effort to learn more about combat sports, Alteroc laid out an article format that covers three athletes from a specific sport:
An all-time great
A specialist
Someone “weird”
This article covers #1 for the martial art and Olympic sport of Judo, the only three time Olympic champion, Tadahiro Nomura.
Tadahiro Nomura, the only triple Olympic gold medalist in Judo history (on the men’s or women’s sides), was born into a family with a long legacy in the sport. His father and grandfather were both Judo coaches (with his father coaching 1984 Olympic gold medalist Shinji Hosokawa), and his uncle Toyokazu Nomura was an Olympic champion himself in 1972. Nomura rocketed through the ultra-competitive ranks of Japanese Judo in the mid 90s, coming out of nowhere to earn a spot on the 1996 Olympic team. Expectations for him were not especially high as the Atlanta games represented his first real test against the world’s best, but Nomura showed his class running through the field to claim his first gold medal at the tender age of 22. The following year the -60kg standout showed his Olympic run was no fluke by taking gold in the world championships in Paris.
Unfortunately, the late 90s were the start of a difficult stretch in Nomura’s career during which frequent injuries would keep him off the mats for long stretches of time. A serious knee injury in 1998 kept him out of competition until the 2000 All-Japan championships (which doubled as the Japanese trials for the Sydney Olympics). Despite having been on the sidelines for over a year Nomura took the title and the national team spot. His return to international competition at the Olympics later that year didn’t disappoint as he again stood atop the podium in Australia after winning the final in just 14 seconds.
After the 2000 games Nomura took some time off of Judo to get married and study in America. His return to top level competition in 2003 was marked by a surprising bronze at the Osaka world championships, and Judo aficionados were led to wonder if age and lack of focus had eroded Nomura’s standing as the man to beat at -60kg. But by the time the 2004 All-Japans rolled around Nomura was back on form, winning his weight class and again qualifying for the Olympics. The Athens games were to be the high point of Nomura’s career as he clinched his third gold medal becoming the only triple Olympic Judo champion. After the games Nomura went into semi-retirement, not making any official announcement but withdrawing from competition. It wasn’t until the next Olympic cycle that he mounted a comeback, but by 2007 age and repeated breaks from training proved too much for even his prodigious talent to overcome. After washing out of the 2008 cycle Nomura formally retired from competitive Judo. An abortive comeback in 2012 also went nowhere, and after several more surgeries Nomura finally hung up his gi for good.
With his career marked by long breaks and injuries, how did Nomura manage to win through stacked Olympic fields on three separate occasions? The answer is that Nomura’s game was extremely intuitive and flexible. While best known for a lightning quick morote-seio-nage (two handed shoulder throw), Nomura could score with almost any technique in the competitive repertoire of Judo.
Gokyo Grab Bag
The gokyo-no-waza is the Japanese name for the standard syllabus of Judo throws. Most Judoka only utilize a small number of techniques in their competition repertoire preferring depth in a few attacks to having a breadth of threats. In addition, there are a few standard styles of Judo play and it’s unusual for competitors to be adept at multiple systems. For example, most uchi-mata (a hip toss that uses a sweeping leg to help complete the throw) specialists rarely score with seio-nage. Judoka who specialize in pickups are often not great at creating chances to throw through classical gripping and movement, and vice versa. It’s a rare competitor who can score at the highest level with shoulder throws, hip throws, pickups, foot sweeps, and ne waza (matwork). Nomura was just this sort of Judoka, a skilled and creative fighter who could score with any throw at any time.
Nomura on the counter, and then the attack. First dodging his Austrian opponent’s uchi-mata attempt Nomura counters with his own uchi-mata knocking his man over for the minor score. Shortly thereafter Nomura enters directly again with uchi-mata for the full point and win.
Nomura had great facility with all the classical throws. While rear throws (throws involving taking your opponent straight backwards as opposed to pulling him forwards) are typically less common at lower weight classes, Nomura had no problem throwing osoto, ouchi, and kouchi gari off the threat of his seio-nage.
The threat of the shoulder throw elicits a strong backwards reaction on the part of Nomura’s opponent. Feeling the momentum shift Nomura gives up on the seio-nage, turns, hooks the leg, and drives forward for the osoto-gari finish.
While it is less true than it once was that Japanese competitors prefer classical technique to the pickup oriented style introduced in the 70s by Soviet Judoka, Nomura was still ahead of most of his countrymen in his ability to use leg grabs to score. Though these techniques would no longer be legal under the increasingly restrictive rule set instated by the IJF, they produced some spectacular ippons for the -60kg champion.
Nomura’s opponent enters on a half hearted pickup attempt, placing himself out of position to defend. Taking full advantage of the lapse in balance Nomura darts forward into an ouchi-gari with a leg grab and grip on the far side collar.
Now on the attack, Nomura locks up his opponent’s left arm in a decidedly non-classical gripping situation. As the Judoka in blue reaches forward to try and grab a sleeve, Nomura slides in deep to the leg and rolls for a full point kata-guruma.
And then there was the seio-nage. For all his ability to throw creatively from a variety of gripping situations, Nomura was at his most dangerous with classical grips from which he could move his opponent and create off balance moments to shoot under for the shoulder throw.
A beautiful demonstration of a classic throw. With his preferred grips in place, Nomura pushes and takes a small step forward. His opponent only needs to return a little pressure; combined with his bent over posture, he’s giving Nomura the perfect opening to turn in and under for the morote-seio-nage. Nomura fits in cleanly and his opponent, with his hips completely loaded on the Japanese competitor’s back, has no way to avoid giving up the full point.
Even in the context of his favorite classical throw Nomura’s creativity shines through. Here he has his opponent half loaded on his hip for a standing morote-seio-nage. Feeling his German opponent start to slide off to his right, Nomura sweeps upward with his right leg combining an uchi-mata like turn with his shoulder throw grips to secure the win.
There’s not really a consensus greatest Judoka of all time, but as the only three time Olympic champion, with a game that combines the best of classical technique with modern creativity, Tadahiro Nomura must be mentioned alongside Yamashita, Riner, Uchishiba, Tani, Koga, and Iliadis as among the best to ever step on tatami. Whatever the inconsistencies in his long career, he always shone when the spotlight was brightest and his legacy is one of unquestionable greatness.