South Korean Judo Player Loses “Unfair” Match At The Olympics In Less Than Two Minutes
On August 5, the 2024 Paris Olympics witnessed one of its wildest moments as French judoka Teddy Riner and South Korea’s judo star Lee Joon Hwan. The two athletes got face to face at the quarterfinals of the mixed team event, and the pictures from the match have left the whole world flabbergasted.
The reason behind this bewilderment was the physical difference between the two opponents. Riner, on the one hand, stands tall at 204cm, weighing a whopping 141.5 kg, while Lee, on the other, stands 175cm tall, weighing 83kg. Though this difference in physique could have made for the perfect setup for a miracle, the match ended exactly how anyone could have predicted. Lee lost within a minute and a half.
Pictures of Riner quite literally ragdolling Lee went viral across social media platforms as netizens noted how comically unfair it was to put the two against each other.
In the mixed team judo matches, each side is comprised of three male and three female players, divided into three categories instead of the usual six. So, during a mixed team event, judokas can compete against opponents they usually wouldn’t, which happened in Lee and Riner’s case. Both athletes, however, have made their nations proud during this Olympics. Lee secured a bronze medal in the individual men’s -81 kg event, while Riner became the first-ever judoka to win five Olympic gold medals!
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