Tadahiro Nomura

Tadahiro Nomura, born on 10 December 1974, is a retired Japanese judoka and the only judoka in the world who has won three individual Olympic gold medals in a row, all in the extra lightweight division of up to 60 kilograms. He was born into a family of judoka: his grandfather was a local judo instructor, his father coached Shinji Hosokawa, the 1984 Olympic champion, and his uncle Toyokazu Nomura won gold in the 70 kilogram division in 1972. He won the All-Japan Selected judo championships in April 1996 to earn a place at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, where, relatively unknown at world level, he won his first gold on 26 July 1996 by defeating Girolamo Giovinazzo with seoi nage. On 16 September 2000 he became the first competitor in the 60 kilogram division to win consecutive Olympic golds, beating Jung Bu-Kyung of South Korea by sumi otoshi after only 14 seconds, and in 2004 he sought an unprecedented third consecutive gold in Athens.