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Masahiko Kimura
Signature: ude-garami, the bent-arm lock that grapplers everywhere now simply call "the Kimura". He used it to beat Hélio Gracie in 1951, and before that went unbeaten in Japanese competition for around 13 years. Start here to understand how much of modern submission grappling traces back to judo's ground game.
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Anton Geesink
Signature: kesa-gatame, the scarf hold. The Dutch giant pinned Akio Kaminaga with it to win the open category at Tokyo 1964, in front of a stunned Budokan crowd, after becoming the first non-Japanese world champion in 1961. The footage shows how a hold-down, applied with patience, can be as decisive as any throw.
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Yasuhiro Yamashita
Signature: osoto-gari, followed into newaza. Yamashita retired on a 203-contest winning streak with four world titles and the 1984 Olympic open gold, won on a torn calf. Watch how often a throw that only half lands becomes a pin within seconds: his transitions to the ground were as feared as the throw itself.
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Neil Adams (judoka)
Signature: juji-gatame, the cross armlock, usually rolled into from a turnover. Britain's 1981 world champion and a two-time Olympic silver medallist made the armbar a scoring weapon rather than a scramble. Today he is the voice of IJF broadcasts, so newcomers can hear him explain the technique he made famous.
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Toshihiko Koga
Signature: ippon-seoi-nage, the one-arm shoulder throw. Koga's entry was so low and quick that bigger men were airborne before they felt the turn, which is why he was nicknamed "Heisei no Sanshiro". He won three world titles and Barcelona 1992 gold at 71 kg despite a knee injury suffered days before.
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Hidehiko Yoshida
Born
Signature: uchi-mata, the inner-thigh throw, taken from a powerful collar grip. Yoshida won Olympic gold at 78 kg in 1992 and the 1999 world title at 90 kg before moving into mixed martial arts. His uchi-mata is a clean model of the textbook version: high lift, full rotation, opponent flat on the back.
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David Douillet
Signature: uchi-mata and harai-goshi from a dominant grip. The French heavyweight won Olympic gold in 1996 and 2000 and four world titles, including both heavyweight and open in 1995. His final against Shinichi Shinohara in Sydney, decided by a disputed uchi-mata counter, is the best single lesson in how refereeing can shape a judo career.
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Tadahiro Nomura
Signature: seoi-nage at 60 kg. Nomura is the only judoka to win three consecutive Olympic golds (1996, 2000, 2004). At the lightest weight, his shoulder throws show the importance of timing over strength: entries made as the opponent steps, not after.
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Ryoko Tani
Born
Signature: seoi-nage and ouchi-gari at 48 kg. Tani won seven world titles, Olympic gold in 2000 and 2004 and medals at five Games in total. Her speed into the shoulder throw, often after feinting a foot attack, is the best place to see judo's combination logic at its smallest scale.
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Kōsei Inoue
Signature: uchi-mata at 100 kg. Inoue won Sydney 2000 gold with a string of spectacular throws and three world titles. Many coaches use his uchi-mata as the reference version, and he later coached Japan's men to their strong showing at Tokyo 2020.
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Ilias Iliadis (judoka)
Signature: ura-nage and sumi-gaeshi, the counters and sacrifice throws. Iliadis won Olympic gold for Greece at 17 in 2004 and later world titles at 90 kg. He invites attacks and then throws backwards, so his contests teach newcomers that defence in judo can be the most dangerous form of attack.
More about Ilias Iliadis (judoka)12
Lucie Décosse
Signature: ouchi-gari, the inner reap. Décosse won three world titles and London 2012 gold at 70 kg, often with a reaping attack that she disguised as a grip change. She later coached Clarisse Agbegnenou, and the same ouchi-gari shows up in her pupil's judo.
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Teddy Riner
Signature: grip dominance leading to o-soto-gari and harai-goshi. Riner has three individual Olympic golds (2012, 2016, 2024) and eleven individual world titles. The interesting part is the first ten seconds: watch how his left-handed grip removes an opponent's options before any throw is attempted.
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Shohei Ono
Signature: uchi-mata and osoto-gari at 73 kg. Ono won Olympic gold in Rio and Tokyo and three world titles, and his judo is the modern standard for committing to big throws instead of chasing penalties. If you want one fighter to show a newcomer what an ippon looks like, it is him.
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Kayla Harrison
Born
Signature: newaza, especially armlocks from turnovers. Harrison won Olympic gold at 78 kg in 2012 and 2016, the first American judoka to win an Olympic title, and took the same grappling base to a UFC championship. Her contests are useful for seeing how pressure on the ground wins matches that stand-up exchanges would not.
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Ronda Rousey
Born
Signature: juji-gatame. Before the UFC, Rousey won Beijing 2008 bronze at 70 kg, the first Olympic judo medal for an American woman. The armbar that later finished so many MMA fights is pure competition judo, and her judo footage shows the throw-to-armlock link more clearly than her cage bouts.
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Hifumi Abe
Signature: seoi-nage and sode-osoto-gari at 66 kg. Abe won Olympic gold in Tokyo and Paris and five world titles, the latest in 2026. He throws from either side and off unusual sleeve grips, which makes his contests a good way to learn how modern judoka disguise a familiar throw.
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Uta Abe
Signature: uchi-mata and sode-tsurikomi-goshi, sometimes blended into a sleeve-grip uchi-mata of her own. Hifumi's sister won Tokyo 2020 gold at 52 kg on the same day as him and is a six-time world champion. Her shock second-round loss in Paris made her later results worth following closely.
More about Uta Abe19
Clarisse Agbegnenou
Signature: ouchi-gari and big soto-makikomi wrap-around throws at 63 kg. Agbegnenou won Tokyo 2020 gold and six world titles, the last after returning from childbirth. Her contests reward watching the grip fight: she wins position first and throws second.
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