Yaël Arad and Catherine Fleury-Vachon: A Historic Olympic Judo Final in 1992 Barcelona Games

2023-12-20 23:05:00

She still calls him “Fleury”. Yaël Arad remembers as if it were yesterday this moment on the tatamis which will forever link her to France. The Israeli judoka (56 years old) found herself face to face, in the final of the 1992 Barcelona Games, with Catherine Fleury-Vachon (- 61 kg). Arad had lost by referees’ decision (no golden score at the time), but the two women had written history: the Frenchwoman became the first French Olympic champion in her discipline; his opponent offered Israel, forty years after its first participation in the Olympic Games, its first Olympic medal.

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