First Uta Abe, and now Anna-Maria Wagner, it seems like this year’s judo at Paris Olympics is taking us on an emotional rollercoaster. Fans of the sport have suffered several heartbreaks watching their favorite judokas lose and more background stories about their loss make it even more difficult to deal with it. Wagner, who stood her ground in the 78kg weight class at the Budapest World Judo Championships and secured gold, faced an unexpected loss.

The German judoka broke her own heart, along with everyone else who was following the sport closely. Despite being a gold medalist at the World Championships, Wagner lost while trying to secure bronze for her country this year at the Olympics. If this defeat alone makes you upset, wait until you find out what she was muttering to herself.

How is Uta Abe’s loss connected to that of Wagner’s?

Briefly before her last try for the Bronze Medal A, the camera panned over to Anna-Maria Wagner. If you paid close attention, you would have heard her muttering something to herself in her mother tongue. A user on the ‘r/judo’ subreddit did the honors of translating her words and breaking our hearts further.

Before ascending the tatami for one final time in Champ de Mars, she repeated, not so quietly, “Das ist MEIN Kampf, das ist MEINE Medaille! Ich zieh´ das jetzt durch bis zum Schluss.” This translates to, “This is MY fight. This is MY medal! I’m going to push it through to the end.”

What was Anna-Maria Wagner saying to herself before her bronze medal match?
byu/derioderio injudo

Ma Zhenzhao from Team China defeated her for Bronze Medal A in the 12th match on mat 1. Bronze Medal B was bagged by Portugal’s Patricia Sampaio. Viewers of the game must have been taken aback by this loss. The similarity with Uta Abe is that the Japanese star was also favored by the online judo community to win. However, a twisted fate saw her walking out of the arena without any medal around her neck.

What exactly happened to Uta Abe?

This heartbreak may have felt familiar to fans after they experienced something similar with Uta Abe when the former Japanese gold medalist couldn’t even qualify for the semi-finals. Her emotional breakdown after an ippon defeat took a toll on judo fans across the world. And now Anna-Maria’s loss just reminded them of the same thing over again. The young Japanese wrestler dominated the 52kg women’s event in her homeland in 2021 and secured gold back then. The audience expected her to defend her Olympic title in Paris this year until her opponent defeated her via ippon.

Although the German athlete went further down the road than Abe, both have the kind of talent that fans were expecting to see rewarded with a medal. Uzbekistan’s Diyora Keldiyorova saw an opportunity while on the tatami against Uta Abe and took it, leading to Abe breaking down into tears in the arms of her coach, who tried his best to comfort her. While no such emotional scene was spotted after Wagner’s loss, everyone is aware of the pain she must have felt walking out of the competition without a medal despite being a World Champion.

What are your thoughts on the judo games in the 2024 Olympics so far? Let us know in the comments below.