Matthew D'Aquino (born 26 June 1985 in
Canberra
Canberra ( )
is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...
) is an Australian
judoka
is an unarmed modern Japanese martial art, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally.『日本大百科全書』電子版【柔道】(CD-ROM version of Encyclopedia Nipponica, "Judo"). ...
, who competed in the extra-lightweight category. He is a 4th Degree Judo Black belt, BJJ black belt under Felipe Grez, two-time Australian judo champion, a multiple-time Oceanian champion for his respective division, and a former member of Marist Judo Club under his personal coach
Tom Hill, who competed for the men's lightweight division at the
2000 Summer Olympics
The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from 1 ...
in
Sydney
Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...
, and eventually won the gold medal at the
2002 Commonwealth Games
The 2002 Commonwealth Games, officially known as the XVII Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Manchester 2002 were held in Manchester, England, from 25 July to 4 August, 2002. The 2002 Games were to be hosted in the United Kingdom to coin ...
in
Manchester, England
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
.
D'Aquino represented
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
at the
2008 Summer Olympics
The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Na ...
in
Beijing
}
Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...
, where he competed for the
men's extra-lightweight class (60 kg). He received a bye for the second preliminary round match, before losing out to Greece's
Lavrentios Alexanidis, who successfully scored an
ippon
is the highest score a fighter can achieve in a Japanese martial arts ''ippon-wazari'' contest, usually kendo, judo, karate or jujitsu.
In Judo
In Judo, an ippon may be scored for a throw, a pin, a choke or a jointlock.
For throws, the four ...
(full point) with an
obi otoshi
is one of the preserved throwing techniques, or Habukareta Waza, of Judo. the 1895 Gokyo no Waza lists. A related technique with the same name is also on the Shinyo no Maki list of Danzan Ryu Jujutsu. It is categorized as a hand technique, Te-w ...
(belt drop), at ninety seconds.
Since then D'Aquino has gone on to be the first and only Australian male to win the Pac Rim Championships in its 40-year history, beating a highly ranked Japanese Judoka in the final. Recently D'Aquino has placed 17th at the World Championships in both 2009 and 2010 as well as placing 7th in the Miami and El Salvador World Cup as well as 7th place in the US Open.
After not qualifying for the 2012 London Olympic Games D'Aquino retired from the international Judo competition but still competes in national level Judo and Brazilian jiu-jitsu competitions. D'Aquino is also an author of two bestselling books on Amazon, these books are "Hard Fought Lessons by an Olympic Judoka" and "Effective goal setting so you can win in life." He also has a number of other books you can see below.
In October 2015 D'Aquino opened a Judo and Brazilian Jiu-jitsu dojo called Beyond Grappling Club. In 2019 Beyond Grappling Club was ranked the second largest Judo club in Australia by Judo Australia.
In January 2020 the International Judo Federation recognized Matt D'Aquino's YouTube channel "Beyond Grappling" as one of the top 12 YouTube channels in the world. In regards to Matt's channel, they wrote "Australian Olympian has an exhaustive collection of playlists specifically for judoka of different abilities and everyone can learn something from his well-known channel. D'Aquino has also authored books and released DVD’s and is a sought instructor around the world."
In March 2020, after his dojo was shut down for 6 months due to COVID19, Matt authored three more books including My First Judo Competition, My First Brazilian Jiujitsu Competition, and the History of Judo for Kids. Each of these books has been translated into many languages. See the bibliography below for more details.
Bibliography
*''Hard Fought Lessons: by an Olympic Judoka'' (2014)
*''Effective goal setting: so you can win at life'' Kindle Edition
*''My First Judo Competition'' (Australian edition) (2020)
*''My First Judo Competition'' (English edition) (2020)
*''My First Judo Competition'' (French edition) (2020)
*''My First Judo Competition'' (Spanish edition) (2020)
*''My First Judo Competition'' (German edition) (2020)
*''My First Judo Competition'' (Portuguese edition) (2020)
*''My First Brazilian Jiujitsu Competition'' (Australian edition) (2020)
*''My First Brazilian Jiujitsu Competition'' (English edition) (2020)
*''My First Brazilian Jiujitsu Competition'' (Italian edition) (2020)
*''History of Judo for Kids'' (Australian edition) (2020)
*''History of Judo for Kids'' (English edition) (2020)
*''History of Judo for Kids'' (Portuguese edition) (2020)
*''History of Judo for Kids'' (Spanish Edition) (2020)
*''History of Judo for Kids'' (French edition) (2020)
*''History of Judo for Kids'' (German edition) (2020)
*''History of Judo for Kids'' (Polish edition) (2021)
*''History of Judo for Kids'' (Dutch edition) (2021)
*''History of Judo for Kids'' (Italian edition) (2021)
*''History of Judo for Kids'' (Mpakwithi edition) (2021)
Bilingual Books:
*''History of Judo for Kids'' (English/Spanish edition) (2020)
*''History of Judo for Kids'' (English/French edition) (2020)
*''History of Judo for Kids'' (English/Portuguese edition) (2020)
*''History of Judo for Kids'' (English/German edition) (2020)
*''History of Judo for Kids'' (English/Polish edition) (2020)
*''History of Judo for Kids'' (English/Indonesian edition) (2020)
*''History of Judo for Kids'' (English/Mpakwithi edition) (2021)
*''History of Judo for Kids'' (English/Dutch edition) (2021)
*''History of Judo for Kids'' (English/Italian edition) (2021)
*''History of Judo for Kids'' (English/Irish edition) (2021)
References
External links
*
Profile – Australian Olympic Team*
Beyond Grappling YouTube channel
External links
*
Profile – Australian Olympic Team
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:D'Aquino, Matt
1985 births
Living people
Sportspeople from Canberra
Sportsmen from the Australian Capital Territory
Australian male judoka
Olympic judoka of Australia
Judoka at the 2008 Summer Olympics
ACT Academy of Sport alumni