Quebec Judoka Wins One of 3 Canadian Medals on Tuesday

In the competitive world of judo, a bout can be over within seconds. The road is difficult, with several matches possible in the same day. Competitors can dedicate the majority of their lives to the pursuit, only to see it all explode in a few stark moments.

Antoine Valois-Fortier faced all of it. He had a strenuous schedule, fighting his way through five opponents and a repechage in his very first Olympic competition. At the end of it, Valois-Fortier won one of Canada’s three medals on Tuesday at the London Games, a bronze in the 81-kilogram class.

Despite being ranked 21st in the world, the native of Quebec City earned the bronze after defeating American Travis Stevens 1-0. Stevens had to fight with a bandage above his left eye after being cut open in a previous match.

The 6-foot-2, 22-year-old is only the fifth Canadian ever to medal in the sport. The last was Nicolas Gill, who took a silver in the 2000 Sydney Olympiad. He also happens to be Valois-Fortier’s coach: Gill stood beside his protege and basked in the glow of victory afterwards.

“It feels amazing. I’ve sacrificed so much, and all of the fights today were very hard,” Valois-Fortier said in an interview. “It was tough mentally, but the whole team supported me and I managed to pull myself together. I wanted it really bad — it’s what I work for every day.”

He began his day with a stunning upset of the world No. 3, Azerbaijan’s Elnur Mammadli, the gold medallist at the 2008 Beijing Games. One of the other competitors Valois-Fortier had beaten earlier in the day was notable for the brutal assessment of his own effort. In an article posted on Telegraph.co.uk, James Kirkup wrote of the “lacerating honesty” with which Scottish judoka Euan Burton described his performance against the Canadian.

“I can’t take any positives (from the match),” Burton declared in the story. “I feel like I’ve let myself down a bit. I feel like I’ve let my coaches down, anyone I’ve every trained with. I’ve let my mum, my dad and my brother down. I’ve been working for this for over a quarter of a century, so no, there’s no positives to be taken.”

Even though he took his loss hard, Burton was gracious to his opponent. “If I say it’s a mistake, it would be a disservice to my opponent. (Valois-Fortier) caught me with a beautiful bit of judo.”

As for the other Team Canada winners on Tuesday: Christine Girard of White Rock, B.C., also captured bronze and became the first Canadian to win a medal in women’s weightlifting. Meanwhile, the Montreal duo of Roseline Filion and Meaghan Benfeito came away with the bronze in women’s 10-metre platform synchronized diving.