Now Kosovo has the first Olympic medal of its own. Kelmendi initially guaranteed a silver medal for Kosovo when she took down Misato Nakamura of Japan in the semifinals.
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Misato Nakamura of Japan and Natalia Kuziutina of Russian Federation claimed bronze medals.
The two-time world champion hails from the small city of Peja and represented Albania at London 2012, just after the International Judo Federation recognised Kosovo in the spring of that year.
Kosovo got the green light to participate as an independent nation for the first time at the 2016 Rio Olympics. As the timer signalled the end of the stipulated time, it was evident that the flag-bearer of the Kosovar delegation had done enough but the judoka chose to wait till the official confirmation is out before she started her celebrations. “I’m so happy for me, for my coach, for all of my country”. “This is the first time that Kosovo is part of the Olympics, and for the first time, I think gold is huge”.
“This medal means a lot, not only for Kosovo’s sport, but for all Kosovo as a country”. People, especially kids, in Kosovo look to me as a hero. If they want to be Olympic champions, they can be. “Even if we come from a small country, poor country”.
Majlinda Kelmendi won Kosovo’s first Olympic medal on Sunday, taking gold in the women’s 52-kilogram judo division. Ranked 29th, the 21-year-old Italian stunned top seed An Baul of the Republic of Korea to take the gold, this after winning his first three contests by ippon, one of them against second-ranked Tumurkhuleg Davaadorj of Mongolia.
The win establishes Wu as one of the great all-time Olympians and broke other barriers as well.Wu passed Guo to become the first man or woman with seven diving medals in total, and she is now the only person to win the 3m event in four successive Games.
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The bronze medals were won by Rishod Sobirov of Uzbekistan and Masashi Ebinuma of Japan.
