Judo at the 1972 Summer Olympics

The Judo competition at the 1972 Summer Olympics was the return of the sport following its absence at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City. Medals were awarded in six weight classes, and competition was restricted to men only. Among the highlights was Willem Ruska of the Netherlands winning gold medals in both the heavyweight and open class competition, becoming the first judoka to win two olympic gold medals.

Medal summary

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Lightweight 63 kg	Takao Kawaguchi  Japan	none awarded	Kim Yong-Ik  North Korea Jean-Jacques Mounier  France
Half Middleweight 70 kg	Toyokazu Nomura  Japan	Anton Zajkowski  Poland	Dietmar Hötger  East Germany Anatoliy Novikov  Soviet Union
Middleweight 80 kg	Shinobu Sekine  Japan	Oh Seung-Lip  South Korea	Jean-Paul Coche  France Brian Jacks  Great Britain
Half-Heavyweight 93 kg	Shota Chochishvili  Soviet Union	David Starbrook  Great Britain	Paul Barth  West Germany Chiaki Ishii  Brazil
Heavyweight +93 kg	Willem Ruska  Netherlands	Klaus Glahn  West Germany	Motoki Nishimura  Japan Givi Onashvili  Soviet Union
Open category	Willem Ruska  Netherlands	Vitali Kuznetsov  Soviet Union	Jean-Claude Brondani  France Angelo Parisi  Great Britain

Medal table

1	Japan (JPN)	3	0	1	4
2	Netherlands (NED)	2	0	0	2
3	Soviet Union (URS)	1	1	2	4
4	Great Britain (GBR)	0	1	2	3
5	West Germany (FRG)	0	1	1	2
6	Poland (POL)	0	1	0	1
	South Korea (KOR)	0	1	0	1
8	France (FRA)	0	0	3	3
9	Brazil (BRA)	0	0	1	1
	East Germany (GDR)	0	0	1	1
	North Korea (PRK)	0	0	1	1
Total		6	5	12	23

References

• "Olympic Medal Winners". International Olympic Committee. Retrieved 2008-02-20.
• Sports123.com
• Videos of the 1972 Judo Summer Olympics