Slovenia may have come in 7th but given its tiny population of two million, winning a gold and a bronze is a superb performance. Kudos to World Champion Tina Trstenjak who can now add Olympic Champion to her resume.
Not traditionally a powerhouse judo nation, the USA did remarkably well to come in 5th with a gold and silver from Kayla Harrison and Travis Stevens, respectively. With Harrison retiring, will the USA still be able to stay in the Top 5?
Host Brazil, truly a judo crazy nation, was expected to do better than 6th place but one saving grace was Rafaela Silva, who is now a national hero having emerged from Rio slum Cidade de Deus to becoming a World and Olympic champ. champ.
Argentina is really not a judo powerhouse at all but with Paul Pareto winning gold, it rocketed the country into the Top 10. Like Silva of Brazil and Trestenjak of Slovenia, Pareto is now both World and Olympic champion.
It's really no surprise that former World Champion Lukas Krpalek was able to propel the Czech Republic into the Top 10. But the reigning World Champion is Japanese and Krpalek did well to overcome him on the way to gold.
Like Slovenia, Kosovo is a tiny nation with a population of less than 2 million. But it has a judo superstar in Majlinda Kelmendi who won the first ever gold medal for Kosovo, for any sport. A feat for the history books.