Daria Bilodid: Two-time judo world champion sets her sights on Olympic gold

Age: 19
Education: Pursuing a journalist degree at Kyiv’s Taras Shevchenko National University
Profession: Judoka
Did you know? Bilodid plans to become a sports journalist after retiring from her athletic career

Daria Bilodid, a judoka, established herself as a household name in 2017, when at the age of 16 she won the European Judo Championship. A year later, a month shy of her 18th birthday, she became the youngest judo world champion.

In 2019, she became the youngest judoka to win back-to-back world championships, defending her title in Tokyo against local fan favorite Funa Tonaki.

Bilodid’s career path seems to be destiny. She was born in 2000 to two-time European judo champion Hennady Bilodid and former judoka-turned-coach Svetlana Kuznetsova.

Bilodid says her parents were initially against her becoming a judoka, preferring a less injury-prone sport, such as dancing and rhythmic gymnastics. But she insisted.

“It was totally my decision,” Bilodid told the Kyiv Post.

While not initially fond of her passion, Bilodid’s parents soon took an active role in her professional upbringing, coaching her from the age of 6.

Today, Bilodid, who competes in the extra-lightweight division (under 48-kilograms), trains for five hours a day. “Two hours in the morning and an additional three in the afternoon,” she says. “Every day except Sunday.”

Bilodid’s work ethic has paid off. At 15, Bilodid won her first major title, the European youth judo championship. Less than a year later, she repeated her success among adults, becoming the second youngest judoka to ever do that.

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While already among the top judokas in her weight class, Bilodid’s road to success was complicated by injuries.

A month before the 2018 European Championship, Bilodid broke her jaw during a training session, preventing her from defending her European title.

“I couldn’t eat anything solid,” said Bilodid during a recent interview. “I was eating food through a straw.”

Her bad luck continued when, a month before the 2018 World Championship, she broke her nose during training. Despite the injury and advice to skip the tournament, Bilodid went on to win the title, becoming the youngest to ever do so.

In 2019, injury-free, Bilodid won both the European Games and, once again, the World Championship.

Bilodid often uses ouchi gari, a special tripping technique, to win her fights. She says that, early on, she had a hard time mastering the technique. “I guess now I know how to do it,” said Bilodid.

Today, her focus is the 2020 Summer Olympic Games, scheduled to take place in Tokyo, the birthplace of judo. Olympic gold is the only professional accomplishment the 19-year-old athlete has not yet achieved.

Bilodid will enter her first Olympics as the clear favorite, ranked No. 1 in her weight class since 2018.

Bilodid’s success has prompted foreign officials to approach her, offering financial benefits and better training conditions in return for her to switch allegiances.

“Representatives of Azerbaijan approached me, from Georgia as well,” she recalls. However, Bilodid never took those proposals seriously.

“I’m a patriot of my country,” she says.

Even though she is dedicated to judo and travels widely for the sport, Bilodid finds the time to attend Taras Shevchenko National University in Kyiv, where she studies journalism.

She says she wants to become a sports journalist after she retires from judo.