Christa Deguchi is back, renewed ambition, Paris 2024 objective | You have seen?

The Deguchi sisters attended national team practices in Montreal before flying to Western Canada to hug their paternal grandmother in Winnipeg.

Christa Deguchi has found a taste for judo again after a big slump in 2021 after her non-qualification for the Tokyo Olympics.

Instead, it was Jessica Klimkait who represented Canada at 57 kg, and she won the bronze medal.

It was very hard, I didn’t watch the Olympics, she admits to Radio-Canada Sports, and I didn’t do judo for two or three months.

Christa Deguchi’s long silence could have led to a desire to turn the page and do something else with her life. But no.

I realized that I wanted to do judo, that I missed judo, and here I am. The Olympic Games have been my dream for a very long time, she recalls, and I didn’t want to give up judo until I knew what it was like to be at the Games, on the Olympic tatami.

No need to ask her what her ultimate goal is, she announces it straight away.

The main purpose of this trip is to prepare me for Parisshe said without hesitation.

I want to face other judokas to see where I am physically and so that we can prepare a better training plan for me in Japan.

Christa Deguchi also wanted to know better the objectives of the new national coach, Antoine Valois-Fortier.

Antoine is our new coach and I want to discuss a bit more what I should do nowshe says.

For Antoine Valois-Fortier, Christa Deguchi must first find her bearings, on the tatami and in training.

Christa is coming back from a long break after the summer of 2021. Very disappointed not to qualify for Tokyo, she must now gradually regain her levelexplains the national coach.

I will accompany him to Budapest for the Grand Slam, he specifies. Until then, she will continue her fitness at home in Japan.

This grand slam in Hungary in July will allow Valois-Fortier to see the level of the 26-year-old judoka and to adjust the objectives if necessary.

Judo Canada is obviously giving Christa Deguchi all the time she needs to regain her form, and still allows her to continue to live in her native Japan and train there alone, without supervision. A risky bet.

A very particular way of doing things, but which suits him. The Japanese judoka was world champion in 2019, and all hopes were high for the Tokyo Games.

I won the 2019 worlds, and I thought I could go to the Olympics, but it didn’t work out, she explains coldly, and I learned that there are no guarantees that I become number 1.

I think I have to work even harder, she thinks, I haven’t done enough for Tokyo.

Christa Deguchi’s failure to qualify made her think, and she decided to change her approach to competitions.

For (the Olympics in) Paris, I want to focus more on each fight, I think I projected myself too far forward (in 2021). Next time, I’ll have to be more careful, and take it one fight at a time.

” I now know what it is to lose. Now I want to know what it’s like to win. »

To be able to participate in the 2024 Games in Paris, she will once again have to try to dismiss Ontario’s Jessica Klimkait, who became the favorite after her 2021 world title and Olympic medal.

At the grand slam in Antalya, Turkey in early April, Klimkait won, Deguchi lost in the semifinals and in their bronze medal fight. She finished 5th. They did not clash.

My judo was not the best. But mentally, it comes back, notes Deguchi. It’s a good start. I couldn’t win a medal, but it’s a good start, it was worth it.

Klimkait has a rare talent, a range of holds at his disposal, a style all in attack. Deguchi has a more traditional, very Japanese style of judo. So how will she go about beating Klimkait?

” This is a difficult question. I believe that I have to fight, I have to do what I have to do, no matter who is in front or what is happening around. »

The answer is cautious. No need to stir up rivalry.

In the footsteps of the big sister

The strength of character of Christa Deguchi impresses her little sister, Kelly, three years her junior. Kelly who fights her in the category of 52 kilos. And who is progressing internationally.

Formerly Kelly Taylor, Kelly took her mom’s name, Deguchi, the name that is listed on her Japanese passport.

I’m really proud of Christa. She is so strong, and she teaches me a lot. We train together.

My goal is to be like her, to be better than her, she says confidently, so it’s good to be able to train with her right now.

Not the same physiognomy, Kelly is taller and more slender, and she is currently much more reserved than her big sister. But she does not lack ambition.

Kelly Deguchi would also like to qualify for the 2024 Olympics in Paris.

It would be fun for the whole familysaid Christa.

I have to win grand slams first before thinking about Parisshe said cautiously.

In the meantime, she progresses by listening to the advice of her big sister in training, and sometimes tries to challenge her.

We don’t compete in competition, but in training I want to beat her, and sometimes I can.concludes Kelly laughing.

And from afar, Christa, who has heard her sister, says with a smirk: When she beats me, it’s because I let her!

The Deguchi sisters are clearly accomplices. They are there for each other in good and bad times. And there will be some by the Paris Games.