The winner of the world championship in women's judo after 29 years is Mimi Heo, a Korean resident in Japan, a descendant of an independence activist, who renounced her Japanese citizenship three years ago and won after a bloody battle over world No. 1 Deguchi.
Mimi Heo is rejoicing after winning by foul after a golden score (overtime) in the women's 57kg final at the International Judo Federation (IJF) World Championships held in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE) on the 21st.
Heo Mimi (22), who gave up her Japanese nationality and wore the Taegeuk symbol, became the first Korean female athlete in 29 years to win a gold medal at the International Judo Federation (IJF) World Championships.
Mimi Heo, ranked 6th in the world in the women's 57kg class, defeated Krista Deguchi (29, Canada), ranked number 1 in the world in this weight class, in the finals of the competition held in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE) on the 21st to become the world champion. The two players were unable to decide the winner for a total of 12 minutes and 18 seconds, more than three times the regular game time (4 minutes). Then, with Deguchi receiving third guidance, Heo Mimi won by foul.
In both men's and women's divisions, it has been six years since the 2018 Baku Games that a Korean judoka won a gold medal at the World Championships. At that time, Ahn Chang-rim (73 kg class) and Jo Gu-ham (100 kg class) won the men's division. The history of Korean female athletes reaching the top of the world championships dates back to Jeong Sung-sook (61kg class) and Cho Min-seon (66kg class) at the 1995 Chiba Games, before Heo Mimi was born
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Born in Tokyo, Japan in 2002, Heo Mimi had dual citizenship: her father was Korean and her mother was Japanese. Heo Mimi, who first wore her gi at the age of 6 following her father, a former judo player, went on to win the Japanese National Middle School Judo Championship in 2017 and the Korean National Youth Judo Championship in 2019
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Her grandmother, who passed away that year, had a big influence on Her Mimi's decision to eventually choose Korean citizenship in 2021. Her grandmother, who was an official of the Mindan of the Republic of Korea in Japan, left a will saying, “She wanted Mimi to become a member of the Korean national team and she would go to the Olympics.” Following her grandmother's wishes, Heo Mimi set her sights on the Taegeuk mark. In the process of joining the Gyeongbuk Athletic Association, she also learned that she was a fifth-generation descendant of Heo Seok (1857-1920). Heo Seok was an independence activist active in the Gyeongbuk region and was posthumously awarded the Patriot Medal for National Foundation Merit in 1991. Mimi Heo is a student at Waseda University in Japan. She usually lives in Japan, but whenever there is an international competition, she comes to Korea and lives at the Jincheon Athletes' Village
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“She can’t believe she won the world championships,” she said. I am very happy that I was able to do the judo I wanted in this competition and get good results. “She had never won before, but beating Gooch gave her a lot of confidence,” she said. Deguchi, winner of the 2019 and 2023 World Championships, also has a Canadian father, but his mother is Japanese and was born and raised in Japan.
“I will definitely work hard to win a gold medal at the Paris Olympics,” she added. The last Korean female judoka to win a gold medal at the Olympics was Cho Min-seon at the 1996 Atlanta Games.
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