Stevens, a Tacoma, WA, native who now lives in Wakefield and trains at Pedro’s Judo Center in Wakefield, has taken home the first men’s medal in judo since his coach Jimmy Pedro took bronze at the 2004 Olympics in Athens.
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Once in the final, Stevens almost picked up the win over Russian Khasan Khalmurzaev with two near-armbars, but Stevens wound up being caught in a counter and was thrown for the loss in the final.
Stevens will now face off against Russia’s Khasan Khalmurzaev in the gold medal match later today.
Kayla Harrison remains the only American to win gold in judo, which she accomplished in London during the 2012 Olympic games. In both instances, he faced off against Germany’s Ole Bischof and never made it farther than the semifinal. He is a three-time national champion and a two-time Pan American champion.
Trstenjak beat France’s Clarisse Agbegnenou in the final, winning Slovenia its first gold medal of 2016, while Khalmurzaev took advantage of Takanori Nagase’s shock loss in the quarter-finals to beat Travis Stevens of the United States and grab an unexpected Olympic title.
His best match was against world No. 1 judoka Avtandili Tchrikishvili.
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Mariana Silva shocked former world champion Yarden Gerbi of Israel by yuko after two minutes of golden score to earn a spot in the semi-finals, where she took on Trstenjak.
