is a retired judoka who competed in the -78 kg and -86 kg divisions.

Biography

Okada began judo in primary school, and won the inter-highschool light heavyweight judo tournament in 1984. While attending the

University of Tsukuba is a public research university located in Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan. It is a top 10 Designated National University, and was ranked Type A by the Japanese government as part of the Top Global University Project. The university has 28 colle ...

, he won the Jigoro Kano Cup in 1986 and the

All-Japan Judo Championships is a judo tournament held every year in Japan. The men's tournament is held in Nippon Budokan on 29 April and the women's tournament (dubbed "Empress cup All-Japan women's Judo championships") is held in Yokohama Cultural Gymnasium in April. T ...

in 1987 and 1988, followed with a gold medal in the -78 kg division of the

World Judo Championships The World Judo Championships are the highest level of international judo competition, along with the Judo at the Summer Olympics, Olympic judo competition. The championships are held once every year (except the years when the Olympics take place ...

in 1987. This earned him a spot on the Japanese olympic judo team for the

1988 Summer Olympics The 1988 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXIV Olympiad () and commonly known as Seoul 1988 ( ko, 서울 1988, Seoul Cheon gubaek palsip-pal), was an international multi-sport event held from 17 September to 2 October ...

, but he was unable to win a medal after a loss in the third round of the tournament.Olympic results
/ref> Okada joined the Marunaka corporation in 1990, and continued his graduate studies at the University of Tsukuba until 1993. In 1990, he moved up in weight to win the -86 kg divisions of the

Kodokan Cup The , or ''Kōdōkan'' (講道館), is the headquarters of the worldwide judo community. The ''kōdōkan'' was founded in 1882 by Kanō Jigorō, the founder of judo, and is now an eight-story building in Tokyo. Etymology Literally, ''kō'' ( ...

and Asian Games. He also won the All-Japan Championships for three consecutive years from 1990–1992, and won another gold medal at the World Judo Championships in 1991. He made his second trip to the Summer Olympics in 1992, and finished with a bronze medal. Okada won the Kodokan Cup again in 1992 before facing Yoshio Nakamura in the 1994 All-Japan Championships. Nakamura caught Okada in a complete

Ude-Hishigi-Juji-Gatame is one of the official 29 grappling techniques of Kodokan Judo. It is one of thjoint techniques of the Kansetsu-waza list, one of the three grappling lists in Judo's

midway through the match, but Okada refused to tap out, forcing the referee to call time. As a result, Okada seriously injured his left arm, suffering a torn ligament and a dislocation. The match ended in a ''yusei'' loss for Okada. Okada won another international competition in Germany before announcing his retirement in December 1995. He has worked as a judo instructor for the University of Tsukuba after retiring, and has appeared as a color commentator for

NHK , also known as NHK, is a Japanese public broadcaster. NHK, which has always been known by this romanized initialism in Japanese, is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee. NHK operates two terrestr ...

's judo broadcasts.

References

External links

* 1967 births Living people Japanese male judoka Judoka at the 1992 Summer Olympics Judoka at the 1988 Summer Olympics Olympic judoka of Japan Olympic bronze medalists for Japan Sportspeople from Gifu Prefecture University of Tsukuba alumni Olympic medalists in judo Asian Games medalists in judo Judoka at the 1990 Asian Games Medalists at the 1992 Summer Olympics Asian Games gold medalists for Japan Medalists at the 1990 Asian Games Goodwill Games medalists in judo Competitors at the 1990 Goodwill Games {{Japan-judo-bio-stub

Biography

See also

References

External links