Tani Ryōko

Tani Ryōko (born September 6, 1975, Fukuoka, Japan) is a Japanese judoka, who became the first woman to win two Olympic titles (2000 and 2004) in judo.

At age eight Tani followed her elder brother to the dojo (school for martial arts) and within months was throwing larger boys in competition. She achieved her first major victory in 1988 at the Fukuoka international women’s judo tournament when she defeated the renowned Karen Briggs of England.

In 1990 she captured the first of 13 consecutive titles at the Fukuoka international. Three years later she won her first world championship and received the fourth dan, the highest rank an active judo player can obtain. Tani won the silver medal in the extra-lightweight event at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, Spain, and went the next four years and 84 matches without a loss. During this time she won her second Olympic silver medal, at the 1996 Games in Atlanta, Georgia. She then went on another winning streak, going undefeated in international competition for the next 12 years. During this time Tani won her first Olympic gold medal, at the 2000 Games in Sydney, Australia. At the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, she used an inside leg technique to defeat Frédérique Jossinet of France and win a second gold medal. Four years later at the Olympic Games in Beijing, Tani won a bronze medal. She retired from competition in 2010.

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Tani, who was widely known in Japan as “Yawara-chan” after a manga (comic book) character with whom she shares a close resemblance, enjoyed celebrity status in her homeland and was honoured by Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi Junichiro in 2002 and by Emperor Akihito in 2003. Her wedding to baseball player Tani Yoshitomo in 2003 was televised nationally. Tani later pursued a career in politics, and in 2010 she was elected to the Diet, serving one term in the House of Councillors.