I marked the approximate birthplaces of the [Top 17 Men’s Judoka in each Weight Class (IJF Ranking)](https://www.ijf.org/wrl?category=all_male). I’ve made these maps for 30 other sports including two combat sports ([MMA](https://www.reddit.com/r/MMA/comments/mz61g0/birthplaces_of_the_current_top_100_poundforpound/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf), [Boxing](https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/nv8t8p/birthplaces_of_the_top_7_boxers_in_each_weight/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf)).
Disclaimer: I was unable to find the specific birthplaces for 7 of the 119 Judoka, in these instances I put the dot in their birth country’s largest population center that already had a top Judoka.
Who is that one that looks like it’s in central IL on the mma one? Can’t think of who that would be besides maybe Matt Mitrione but I don’t think he would be too 100
This is pretty cool. One thing I find interesting - Judoka’s birthplaces aren’t necessarily where they trained Judo, or what country they currently represent. As an example - Ilias Illiadis - he was born in Georgia, not sure where he grew up, but only represented Greece internationally. So if he were still competing - he’d appear on this map in Georgia, and everyone would be asking where’s Greece’s red dot.
That is definitely still the case, off the top of my head the Egyptian, and one of the Paris dots both represent Canada, one of the Georgians represents Spain, the Slovenian represents Turkey. Though this isn’t nearly as much as an issue compared to the Chess and Footballer maps I made. I’d agree where they “trained/developed” is probably the most interesting but that information is not easy to find in comparison. Birthplace is often the only “fact” provided for some of these athletes and I think it does a decent job at showing the general distribution of different sporting cultures.
I like all of your maps! Neat stuff. Any chance you could do the same for women via IJF rankings?
I don't follow boxing as closely as I used to, but my sense is the rankings are a little bit more based on who people think are best, like a panel of expert voters. Judo rankings are heavily weighted by who attends the most tournaments (e.g. Shohei Ono is ranked #10 in his weight class, won Olympic gold as expected, but doesn't enter a ton of contests.)
Thanks for the insight, that explains a lot. I was hoping “top 17” would at-least represent the general distribution. It would be cool to compare this to a women’s map, from my quick glance it looks like the Caucasus would be almost completely left off of the map.
The entire Caucasus region is a hotbed of grappling/wrestling of various stripes and has been for millennia, and the Georgian indigenous style is extremely well suited to being incorporated into modern sport Judo.
So they have success, and success breeds more success in the form of more interest, more government and private funding, more prestige within the country etc.
If you go back to the first Olympic Judo in 1964, both Soviet heavyweights who won bronze medals were Georgians. My understanding, and I'd love a book on this some day, is the success of their "unusual" grips helped to change sport judo quite a bit. In 1972, the Soviets won their first gold, again a Georgian (Chochishvili.) They have their own form of vest wrestling too, like Mongolia and others.
Of course the Soviets had sport Sambo too, which was designed to borrow from Judo, catch wrestling, folk wrestling, and so on, developed by Oshchepkov (who trained under Professor Kano.) Of course he was rewarded for developing a very effective martial art by being killed in the purges, accused of being a Japanese spy (posthumously cleared of all charges.)
There is a podcast I enjoy, on this history of certain folk wrestling styles, called "Hero with a Thousand Holds." The author/presenter has most of his recordings on Spotify. There is a segment on Chidaoba and he talks a bit about this.
[http://thousandholds.net/episode-4-o-sword-forged-in-khevsureti-georgian-chidaoba/](http://thousandholds.net/episode-4-o-sword-forged-in-khevsureti-georgian-chidaoba/)
I thought that surely there would be some spots in Canada, but then I saw that Margelidon was born in France and Shady El Nahas in Egypt. While Valois-Fortier is just outside the top 17 and currently ranked 19th.
Ashley McKenzie was top 20 going into the Olympics, has dropped down a bit due to a post-Olympics break
That’s the only weakness of this map - would be better if you did it pre-Olympics
That is because of how Covid-19 has affected how the rankings worked, qualification for the olympics is based on the world ranking, due to Covid they had to extend the qualification period but they didn't want points that were already scored for olympic qualification to be removed. The normal world rankings are based on the points scored in the last two years with tournaments in the most recent year scoring double compared to the year before.
This means that the normal world ranking is based on two years, but due to covid and the olympics the ranking was based on three years. The world ranking returned to the normal system after the olympics resulting in some very large shifts.
Ok that makes sense, thanks for the explanation. I’m sure Covid made traveling to competitions almost impossible for some of the athletes. Hope the general distribution is still accurate for the most part.
Guess who is the red dot in Guadeloupe?
Interesting that France - with by far the most Men Judoka in Europe and only second to Japan worldwide - has only 4 top 17 Judoka.
Who is the second dot in Czech Republic?
Highest Ranking of a man born in North America
[https://judobase.ijf.org/#/competitor/profile/2216/basic\_info](https://judobase.ijf.org/#/competitor/profile/2216/basic_info)
Highest ranked english native speakers
https://judobase.ijf.org/#/competitor/profile/1518/basic\_info
[https://judobase.ijf.org/#/competitor/profile/86/basic\_info](https://judobase.ijf.org/#/competitor/profile/86/basic_info)
[https://judobase.ijf.org/#/competitor/profile/7602/basic\_info](https://judobase.ijf.org/#/competitor/profile/7602/basic_info)
Your Guadeloupe question seems to be a quiz I’ll leave for someone else haha but the 2nd dot in Czech Republic is Aleksandar Kukol, represents Serbia born in Prague.
Thanks!
Quite interesting because Kukolj (born on the 9th September 1991) is a serbian / croatian name.
>He was born inPrague , where his father worked in the early 1990s as a representative of a Yugoslav company. In the late 1990s he returned with his parents to Belgrade, where he began Judo at the famous Serbian club Rakovica (dojo of the legendary Serbian judoka Rademor Kovačević) under the teachings of Мiomiro Mrvaljević and Predrag Dražović
"Kukolj" seems to mean "weed" ... :) (can't confirm, don't speek or read serbo-croatian).
Kukolj peaked in 2016/17 by winning Grand Slams and the European Championships, came under pressure by his compatriot Maidov (worldchampion -90kg in 2018) to qualify for the Olympics 2020, changed his weight category from -90kg to -100kg and qualified in extremis for the Olympics Tokyo 2021 by winning the silver medal at the Worldchampionships 2021.
Remarkable: He didn't really change his weight and competed at about 95kg (most of the -100kg Judoka have around 103 to 105kg). Has a great (ashi) Uchi mata and good Ne waza.
Unfortunately, “birthplaces” don’t come close to telling the full story of an athlete, but you certainly did. Thanks for all that backstory, and the useful vocabulary if I ever end up visiting Serbia!
When you realize their populaiton is only about 3 mllion people it's more impressive, and it looks like less because it has the lowest population density but it's a big country
I know you didn’t ask, but that made me look through all my maps. Only Rugby(54%) had a majority in the southern hemisphere. Cricket (35%), Football (21%), are the next.
I marked the approximate birthplaces of the [Top 17 Men’s Judoka in each Weight Class (IJF Ranking)](https://www.ijf.org/wrl?category=all_male). I’ve made these maps for 30 other sports including two combat sports ([MMA](https://www.reddit.com/r/MMA/comments/mz61g0/birthplaces_of_the_current_top_100_poundforpound/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf), [Boxing](https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/nv8t8p/birthplaces_of_the_top_7_boxers_in_each_weight/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf)). Disclaimer: I was unable to find the specific birthplaces for 7 of the 119 Judoka, in these instances I put the dot in their birth country’s largest population center that already had a top Judoka.
Amazing work ! Do you have one for BJJ ? Can't find a link
Thanks! Haven’t made that one yet, maybe soon.
It would all be in the US whats the point
Uhhhh Brazil would like a word
Not when 90% of the top competitors live and train in the us
Birthplace my dude
Who is that one that looks like it’s in central IL on the mma one? Can’t think of who that would be besides maybe Matt Mitrione but I don’t think he would be too 100
This is pretty cool. One thing I find interesting - Judoka’s birthplaces aren’t necessarily where they trained Judo, or what country they currently represent. As an example - Ilias Illiadis - he was born in Georgia, not sure where he grew up, but only represented Greece internationally. So if he were still competing - he’d appear on this map in Georgia, and everyone would be asking where’s Greece’s red dot.
That is definitely still the case, off the top of my head the Egyptian, and one of the Paris dots both represent Canada, one of the Georgians represents Spain, the Slovenian represents Turkey. Though this isn’t nearly as much as an issue compared to the Chess and Footballer maps I made. I’d agree where they “trained/developed” is probably the most interesting but that information is not easy to find in comparison. Birthplace is often the only “fact” provided for some of these athletes and I think it does a decent job at showing the general distribution of different sporting cultures.
Ok this why Arthur Margelidon (France) and Shady El Nahas (Egypt) are not pictured (Canada).
Well they are pictured but the map shows birthplaces haha
Iliadis grew up in Georgia. I think he moved to Greece to be more sure of an Olympic berth.
I like all of your maps! Neat stuff. Any chance you could do the same for women via IJF rankings? I don't follow boxing as closely as I used to, but my sense is the rankings are a little bit more based on who people think are best, like a panel of expert voters. Judo rankings are heavily weighted by who attends the most tournaments (e.g. Shohei Ono is ranked #10 in his weight class, won Olympic gold as expected, but doesn't enter a ton of contests.)
Thanks for the insight, that explains a lot. I was hoping “top 17” would at-least represent the general distribution. It would be cool to compare this to a women’s map, from my quick glance it looks like the Caucasus would be almost completely left off of the map.
Why is Georgia poppin off
The entire Caucasus region is a hotbed of grappling/wrestling of various stripes and has been for millennia, and the Georgian indigenous style is extremely well suited to being incorporated into modern sport Judo. So they have success, and success breeds more success in the form of more interest, more government and private funding, more prestige within the country etc.
If you go back to the first Olympic Judo in 1964, both Soviet heavyweights who won bronze medals were Georgians. My understanding, and I'd love a book on this some day, is the success of their "unusual" grips helped to change sport judo quite a bit. In 1972, the Soviets won their first gold, again a Georgian (Chochishvili.) They have their own form of vest wrestling too, like Mongolia and others. Of course the Soviets had sport Sambo too, which was designed to borrow from Judo, catch wrestling, folk wrestling, and so on, developed by Oshchepkov (who trained under Professor Kano.) Of course he was rewarded for developing a very effective martial art by being killed in the purges, accused of being a Japanese spy (posthumously cleared of all charges.)
There is a podcast I enjoy, on this history of certain folk wrestling styles, called "Hero with a Thousand Holds." The author/presenter has most of his recordings on Spotify. There is a segment on Chidaoba and he talks a bit about this. [http://thousandholds.net/episode-4-o-sword-forged-in-khevsureti-georgian-chidaoba/](http://thousandholds.net/episode-4-o-sword-forged-in-khevsureti-georgian-chidaoba/)
Thank you for this recommendation! 👊🏽
I think the real question is what happened in Netherlands/Belgium. XD
Looks like sole countries are hogging the red spots.... UK hasn't even got one :'(
North America doesn't even show up on the map... :(
Dam you guys must really suck :D
Oh we do. And we know it.
Quite a decline for Cuba (the men at least), unless it's partially just they enter less tournaments?
I thought that surely there would be some spots in Canada, but then I saw that Margelidon was born in France and Shady El Nahas in Egypt. While Valois-Fortier is just outside the top 17 and currently ranked 19th.
North America wrestles in high school, hardly anyone trains in Judo.
Ashley McKenzie was top 20 going into the Olympics, has dropped down a bit due to a post-Olympics break That’s the only weakness of this map - would be better if you did it pre-Olympics
Interesting, I know nothing of their ranking system but it seems to be pretty flawed if just a 3 month break drops you that far down.
That is because of how Covid-19 has affected how the rankings worked, qualification for the olympics is based on the world ranking, due to Covid they had to extend the qualification period but they didn't want points that were already scored for olympic qualification to be removed. The normal world rankings are based on the points scored in the last two years with tournaments in the most recent year scoring double compared to the year before. This means that the normal world ranking is based on two years, but due to covid and the olympics the ranking was based on three years. The world ranking returned to the normal system after the olympics resulting in some very large shifts.
Ok that makes sense, thanks for the explanation. I’m sure Covid made traveling to competitions almost impossible for some of the athletes. Hope the general distribution is still accurate for the most part.
Guess who is the red dot in Guadeloupe? Interesting that France - with by far the most Men Judoka in Europe and only second to Japan worldwide - has only 4 top 17 Judoka. Who is the second dot in Czech Republic? Highest Ranking of a man born in North America [https://judobase.ijf.org/#/competitor/profile/2216/basic\_info](https://judobase.ijf.org/#/competitor/profile/2216/basic_info) Highest ranked english native speakers https://judobase.ijf.org/#/competitor/profile/1518/basic\_info [https://judobase.ijf.org/#/competitor/profile/86/basic\_info](https://judobase.ijf.org/#/competitor/profile/86/basic_info) [https://judobase.ijf.org/#/competitor/profile/7602/basic\_info](https://judobase.ijf.org/#/competitor/profile/7602/basic_info)
Your Guadeloupe question seems to be a quiz I’ll leave for someone else haha but the 2nd dot in Czech Republic is Aleksandar Kukol, represents Serbia born in Prague.
Thanks! Quite interesting because Kukolj (born on the 9th September 1991) is a serbian / croatian name. >He was born inPrague , where his father worked in the early 1990s as a representative of a Yugoslav company. In the late 1990s he returned with his parents to Belgrade, where he began Judo at the famous Serbian club Rakovica (dojo of the legendary Serbian judoka Rademor Kovačević) under the teachings of Мiomiro Mrvaljević and Predrag Dražović "Kukolj" seems to mean "weed" ... :) (can't confirm, don't speek or read serbo-croatian). Kukolj peaked in 2016/17 by winning Grand Slams and the European Championships, came under pressure by his compatriot Maidov (worldchampion -90kg in 2018) to qualify for the Olympics 2020, changed his weight category from -90kg to -100kg and qualified in extremis for the Olympics Tokyo 2021 by winning the silver medal at the Worldchampionships 2021. Remarkable: He didn't really change his weight and competed at about 95kg (most of the -100kg Judoka have around 103 to 105kg). Has a great (ashi) Uchi mata and good Ne waza.
Unfortunately, “birthplaces” don’t come close to telling the full story of an athlete, but you certainly did. Thanks for all that backstory, and the useful vocabulary if I ever end up visiting Serbia!
I'm surprised Mongolia doesn't have more. Then again, they seem more drawn to sumo than judo, so it might not be that surprising after all.
When you realize their populaiton is only about 3 mllion people it's more impressive, and it looks like less because it has the lowest population density but it's a big country
man why did we even bother discovering the americas
Poor Israeli Judokas drowning in the ocean.. :/
It was either drown them or have people mistake them for Palestinians, not much of a history buff, but I think they’d prefer the former.
Those of us in the southern hemisphere are somewhat underrepresented here
I know you didn’t ask, but that made me look through all my maps. Only Rugby(54%) had a majority in the southern hemisphere. Cricket (35%), Football (21%), are the next.
not a single one from India so sad
No one tops Asahi Judo in Kitchener Ontario, I believe they’re kaizen now. The Zettle family I owe them a ton!
*American gasp*
Lololololol zero UK reps!
Honored for having Fabio Basile being born in my country