A woman from Lleida with Japanese blood at the top of the world: gold for Ai Tsunoda at the Judo World Championships

BarcelonaThe Catalan Ai Tsunoda has touched the sky after years of a career full of sacrifices in judo and has been proclaimed champion in the up to 70 kg category of the World Championships that are being held in Baku. The fighter from Lleida prevailed in the final against the Austrian Michaela Polleres, one of the greatest milestones in the history of Catalan judo.

At 24 years old, Tsunoda was one step away from being an Olympic medalist in Paris, a wound that motivated her to keep working hard. In fact, at the Paris Games it was precisely Polleres who left her off the podium. A two-time world champion in the junior category, until now her greatest success was a bronze at the European Championships in Zagreb. In Baku, all the sacrifices made so far have translated into an unexpected triumph, as she was not even a seeded player.

Tsunoda fought a very intelligent final match, forcing three penalties on her opponent. An even and contested match that ended in the great success of the Lleida native, who along the way overcame the local Sudaba Aghayeva, the Slovenian Nika Koren, the Dutch Sanne van Dijke, the Serbian Aleksandra Andric, and finally Michaela Polleres.

The judoka made the decision to leave Catalonia in 2023 to go to her father's homeland, Japan, to pursue university studies in martial arts at Tokai University. There, she received advice from her grandfather, also a judoka, and grew strong at a study center where great discipline is required. Ai, who speaks five languages (Catalan, Spanish, English, French, and Japanese), was destined to shine in this sport, since, in fact, her parents had met thanks to judo. Her father is Go Tsunoda, a judo coach for Great Britain at the 2012 Games and in Portugal. Her mother is the Frenchwoman Céline Roustant, who came to live in Spain, where she was a national champion in 2011. During their travels competing, they decided to open a judo gym in Lleida, where they put down roots.

"My father tells me that to grow a plant you need sun and rain, you also need to know how to learn from defeat," said Ai, speaking to ARA two years ago in Paris. And from those defeats, the triumph in this World Championship has emerged.