Celebrating Heroes
via graphics & videos shared online
You might not have heard of Jacob-Jan Van Heesvelde, an 18-year-old judoka from Belgium but you might have seen some of the graphic images or video clips he’s made under the moniker: JudoHeroes. For the past three years he's been creating and sharing his creations with judo fans around the world.
Jacob started JudoHeroes on May 31, 2013, with a Facebook Page and a YouTube channel. He would later add a Twitter page too. “My reason for starting this was my passion for judo, which is the best sports in the world,” he says.
He built up his Facebook following from scratch. As his videos began to get shared, he also started receiving encouraging messages from judo fans around the world.
For example, when he created a video about Mongolian judo, he attracted a lot of fans from Mongolia who were grateful to him for highlighting their country. “I made some new friends from Mongolia because of this,” he says.
Some top players have also contacted him. “Sagi Muki from Israel has thanked me for making a video dedicated to him and Krisztian Toth was very pleased that I included him in the Top 5 best judokas of the year,” Jacob says.
Another judo personality who noticed Jacob was Mr Judo Insider himself, Hans Van Essen, who reached out to him. “I really felt honoured to receive compliments from Hans because I’ve been following JudoInside since I was a kid,” he says.
Today, they do some collaborations on judo graphics. “Hans motivates me a lot,” says Jacob. “Because of him, I am always searching for new concepts and ways to present judo.”
One of the highlights of the year for a Judo Crazy guy like Jacob was Rio 2016, which kept him glued to the video screen for seven straight days of judo. “For one whole week, I was fully dedicated to following the judo competition at the Olympics,” he recalls. “It was a super experience – the fights, the glory, the emotions, I just loved it all.”
But it wasn’t easy watching the Olympics in full because broadcasters the world over tended to show one mat only. “Belgium has two main broadcasters VRT and RTBF and on the first day it was fine because each showed a different mat, so I was able to monitor both mats on two different devices,” he says. “But after that there were days when they both showed the same mat so I ended up missing a lot of important fights.”
The most memorable moment for Jacob was watching Fabio Basile of Italy winning a gold medal in the -66kg division. “I can remember like it was yesterday,” he says. “I didn’t think he could get past An in the final and the moment he threw An on his back, I got chills throughout my body. In my opinion, this was one of the greatest moments in judo history.
Immediately after the Olympics, Jacob began collaborating with Hans of JudoInside, David Finch of JudoPhotos and Oon Yeoh of JudoCrazy to create a new e-magazine to celebrate the year in judo.
“Working on more publications like this is something I really look forward to doing in 2017,” he says, adding that he plans to continue churning out graphics and videos for his JudoHeroes channels on Facebook and Twitter. “I want to spread my passion for judo around the world.”