Oct 11 Japan's double World Champion Haruna Asami retires. Despite achieving great results at the World Championships (she is a double World Champion), Asami was never able to make it to the Olympics. “I avidly threw myself into judo for 25 years. The challenges I had in the process of going after my dream, the Olympics, is something I’ll treasure for the rest of my life,” says Asami.
Oct 12 Slovenia's Olympic Champion Tina Trstenjak is featured on a postage stamp issued by postal operator Pošta Slovenije in collaboration with the Celje Judo Club and the Slovenian Philatelic Association.
Oct 13 Canada's Olympic silver medallist Nicolas Gill is stepping away from the head coach position to become CEO of Judo Canada. Portugal's Michel Almeida, who has been coaching in Canada since 2014, will become the new head coach. Gill will retain his position as High Performance Director.
Nov 9 Belgium's Charline van Snick is moving up a weight class. "After having spent more than 10 years of my life of high-level athlete at -48kg, my body said stop! I've decided to listen to it and start a new challenge, fighting at -52kg," she says.
Nov 13 Japan's World Champion Yuka Nishida retires after losing in the Kodokan Cup. She did not make it for Rio 2016 and her last IJF World Tour victory was at the 2015 Qingdao Grand Prix.
The German Judo Federation appoints Richard Trautmann and Claudiu Pusa as the men's and women's coaches respectively, for the next Olympic cycle up to Tokyo 2020. They replace Detlef Ultsch and Michael Bazynski, respectively.
Nov 15 Double Olympic Champion Teddy Riner campaigns in Doha for Paris to host the 2024 Olympic Games . The Association of National Olympic Committees is having its general assembly in Doha. Other contenders for the 2024 Games Los Angeles and Budapest.
Nov 15 Olympic champions Majlinda Kelmendi of Kosovo and Rafaela Silva of Brazil are winners at the 2016 Association of National Olympic Committees Awards in Qatar. Kelmendi won the Breakthrough Award while Silva won the Most Inspirational Performance Award.
Nov 24 Double Olympic champion Teddy Riner is selected for the World Anti-Doping Agency Athlete (WADA) Committee for a three-year term. He starts January 1, 2017.
Dec 4 Jean-Luc Rouge, the IJF General Secretary presents the IJF Expert diploma to former World Champion Neil Adams, who is currently the IJF's live stream and highlights commentator. “I am honoured. It is nice when what you are doing is recognised," says Adams.
Dec 5 IJF Rules will see another overhaul in 2017. During a Twitter Q&A, IJF President Marius Vizer says they will soon be published and presented at the IJF seminar for coaches and referees in Baku in January 2017.
Dec 6 Former World Champion Chonosuke Takaki of Japan dies. A graduate of Nihon University, Takaki continued his competition career until the age of 33. He was in charge of coaching at the Nihon University Judo Club and was also an Executive Board Member of the All Japan Judo Federation.
France's 2009 World Champion Morgane Ribout is the latest judo champion joining MMA. Ribout, 28, announced her entry into MMA via Facebook: "It is with great pleasure tonight, and after over a year and a half of training, to announce my debut in MMA pro. Many people already asked me to when it will be my 1st fight, and I'll have to wait until early 2017 (mid-February early-March), together with my coach Bertrand Amoussou!"
The whole year's
news in a glance