5 Mansur Isaev of Russia takes down Riki Nakaya of Japan during the gold medal match at the 2012 summer Olympic Games in London England CHAPTER 1 OLYMPIC WIN With less than two minutes left in their match Mansur Isaev of Russia and Riki Nakaya of Japan circled each other on the mat They were competing for a gold medal in judo at the 2012 summer Olympic Games in London England Neither Isaev nor Nakaya had scored a point The men locked hands Nakaya slipped an arm under Isaev’s leg and tried to throw him to the ground
Isaev shows off his Olympic gold medal in judo 7 It looked like Isaev was going down But in the blink of an eye Isaev wrapped his leg around Nakaya’s and brought him down instead Nakaya lay face down on the mat stunned Isaev’s lightning fast reflexes had earned him the only point of the match The Russian had won an Olympic gold medal Judo is a martial art The sport was created in 1882 Judo does not use weapons Instead it combines full body contact with mindfulness for the opponent Judo started in Japan The sport’s founder was Dr Jigoro Kano As a child Kano was smaller than most kids his age He was tired of being bullied He dreamed of being strong Kano became fascinated by the Japanese martial art of jujutsu In jujutsu fighters attack and defend themselves using their entire bodies With jujutsu small people can defeat stronger people by fighting smartly Kano wanted to learn everything about the sport
