It’s a rare honor for Idalys Ortiz…
The 31-year-old Cuban judoka may have lost her gold medal match against Japan’s Akira Sone in the women’s judo +78 kg category at the 2020 Tokyo Games, but she’s still managed to make some history.
In claiming the silver at this Summer Olympics, Ortiz became the fourth women to earn at least four medals in judo, having also won bronze at the 2008 Beijing Games, gold at the 2012 London Games and silver at 2016 Rio Games.
Ryoko Tani owns the record for the most with five.
Sone won the match via ippon in the Golden Score period after Oritz was charged with her third penalty of the encounter at the 8:52 mark of the match.
“Akira Sone is a great athlete,” Ortiz said. “She is very young, she is very talented, and we knew beforehand if she ended up being my opponent she would be very difficult to beat.”
The bronze medals went to France’s Romane Dicko and Iryna Kindzerska, of Azerbaijan, who is the first woman from her country to earn an Olympic medal in judo.
