# Judo at the 2004 Summer Olympics

Judo at the 2004 Summer Olympics took place in the Ano Liossia Olympic Hall and featured 368 judoka competing for 14 gold medals with seven different weight categories in both the men's and women's competitions. Japan dominated the event by taking 8 gold and 2 silver medals.
Gold and silver medals in each weight class were determined by a single-elimination bracket. There was a repechage for those who are eliminated by one of the eventual semifinalists. Since there are four semifinalists, this means that four of the losers of the round of 32 (i.e., 25%) faced four of the losers from the round of 16 (50%). The winners of these matches faced the four judokas who have lost in the quarterfinals. The winners, then, of these four matches faced each other to narrow the repechage field down to two judokas. Until this stage, the repechage has been segregated into two distinct halves, with each successive competitor facing another one from the same half of the original bracket; but each of the two judokas who emerge from the repechage challenged the loser of the other bracket's semifinal. (Since these two always come from opposite halves of the original bracket, they could not have faced each other already.) The winners of these two matches were each awarded a bronze medal, making judo unusual among Olympic events in not determining a single third-place finisher.
There was controversy in the men's competition, when Iranian competitor and two-times world champion Arash Miresmaeili weighed in overweight and was disqualified before a match in which he would have faced Israeli judoka Ehud Vaks. Miresmaeili's comments strongly suggested that he had intentionally disqualified himself so as not to compete against an Israeli.

## Medal summary
### Men's events

| Games | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
| Extra-lightweight (60 kg) details | Tadahiro Nomura Japan | Nestor Khergiani Georgia | Khashbaataryn Tsagaanbaatar Mongolia |
| Extra-lightweight (60 kg) details | Tadahiro Nomura Japan | Nestor Khergiani Georgia | Choi Min-ho South Korea |
| Half-lightweight (66 kg) details | Masato Uchishiba Japan | Jozef Krnáč Slovakia | Georgi Georgiev Bulgaria |
| Half-lightweight (66 kg) details | Masato Uchishiba Japan | Jozef Krnáč Slovakia | Yordanis Arencibia Cuba |
| Lightweight (73 kg) details | Lee Won-hee South Korea | Vitaliy Makarov Russia | Leandro Guilheiro Brazil |
| Lightweight (73 kg) details | Lee Won-hee South Korea | Vitaliy Makarov Russia | Jimmy Pedro United States |
| Half-middleweight (81 kg) details | Ilias Iliadis Greece | Roman Gontyuk Ukraine | Dmitri Nossov Russia |
| Half-middleweight (81 kg) details | Ilias Iliadis Greece | Roman Gontyuk Ukraine | Flávio Canto Brazil |
| Middleweight (90 kg) details | Zurab Zviadauri Georgia | Hiroshi Izumi Japan | Mark Huizinga Netherlands |
| Middleweight (90 kg) details | Zurab Zviadauri Georgia | Hiroshi Izumi Japan | Khasanbi Taov Russia |
| Half-heavyweight (100 kg) details | Ihar Makarau Belarus | Jang Sung-ho South Korea | Ariel Ze'evi Israel |
| Half-heavyweight (100 kg) details | Ihar Makarau Belarus | Jang Sung-ho South Korea | Michael Jurack Germany |
| Heavyweight (+100 kg) details | Keiji Suzuki Japan | Tamerlan Tmenov Russia | Indrek Pertelson Estonia |
| Heavyweight (+100 kg) details | Keiji Suzuki Japan | Tamerlan Tmenov Russia | Dennis van der Geest Netherlands |

### Women's events

| Games | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
| Extra-lightweight (48 kg) details | Ryoko Tani Japan | Frédérique Jossinet France | Gao Feng China |
| Extra-lightweight (48 kg) details | Ryoko Tani Japan | Frédérique Jossinet France | Julia Matijass Germany |
| Half-lightweight (52 kg) details | Xian Dongmei China | Yuki Yokosawa Japan | Ilse Heylen Belgium |
| Half-lightweight (52 kg) details | Xian Dongmei China | Yuki Yokosawa Japan | Amarilis Savón Cuba |
| Lightweight (57 kg) details | Yvonne Bönisch Germany | Kye Sun-hui North Korea | Deborah Gravenstijn Netherlands |
| Lightweight (57 kg) details | Yvonne Bönisch Germany | Kye Sun-hui North Korea | Yurisleidy Lupetey Cuba |
| Half-middleweight (63 kg) details | Ayumi Tanimoto Japan | Claudia Heill Austria | Driulis González Cuba |
| Half-middleweight (63 kg) details | Ayumi Tanimoto Japan | Claudia Heill Austria | Urška Žolnir Slovenia |
| Middleweight (70 kg) details | Masae Ueno Japan | Edith Bosch Netherlands | Qin Dongya China |
| Middleweight (70 kg) details | Masae Ueno Japan | Edith Bosch Netherlands | Annett Böhm Germany |
| Half-heavyweight (78 kg) details | Noriko Anno Japan | Liu Xia China | Yurisel Laborde Cuba |
| Half-heavyweight (78 kg) details | Noriko Anno Japan | Liu Xia China | Lucia Morico Italy |
| Heavyweight (+78 kg) details | Maki Tsukada Japan | Daima Beltrán Cuba | Tea Donguzashvili Russia |
| Heavyweight (+78 kg) details | Maki Tsukada Japan | Daima Beltrán Cuba | Sun Fuming China |

## Medal table

* Host nation (Greece)
| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
| 1 | Japan | 8 | 2 | 0 | 10 |
| 2 | China | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5 |
| 3 | South Korea | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| 4 | Georgia | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| 5 | Germany | 1 | 0 | 3 | 4 |
| 6 | Belarus | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 6 | Greece* | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 8 | Russia | 0 | 2 | 3 | 5 |
| 9 | Cuba | 0 | 1 | 5 | 6 |
| 10 | Netherlands | 0 | 1 | 3 | 4 |
| 11 | Austria | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 11 | France | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 11 | North Korea | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 11 | Slovakia | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 11 | Ukraine | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 16 | Brazil | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| 17 | Belgium | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 17 | Bulgaria | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 17 | Estonia | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 17 | Israel | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 17 | Italy | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 17 | Mongolia | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 17 | Slovenia | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 17 | United States | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Totals (24 entries) | Totals (24 entries) | 14 | 14 | 28 | 56 |

## Qualification

Together with 366 directly qualified athletes, there were 18 invitational places, making up a total athlete quota of 386 athletes—229 men, 157 women.
An NOC may enter up to one athlete per weight category. The qualifying places were allocated as follows:
| Event/Union | Event/Union | Location | Men | Women | Totals |
| World Championships | World Championships | Japan | 6 | 6 | 84 |
| Unions | African Judo Union | — | 3 | 2 | 35 |
| Unions | Judo Union of Asia | — | 5 | 3 | 56 |
| Unions | European Judo Union | — | 9 | 5 | 98 |
| Unions | Oceania Judo Union | — | 1 | 1 | 14 |
| Unions | Pan American Judo Union | — | 6 | 3 | 63 |
| Host Nation (GRE) | Host Nation (GRE) | — | 1 | 1 | 14 |
| Tripartite Commission Invitation places | Tripartite Commission Invitation places | — | — | — | 15 |
| Final Qualification places | Final Qualification places | — | — | — | 7 |
| TOTAL | TOTAL | | | | 386 |
$^a$ If the host nation qualified athletes directly through the world championships or European continental qualification system, the reserved entry places were reallocated as part of the European continental qualification.
Continental qualification places is allocated through the ranking system based on the major tournaments on the continent (continental championships, qualification tournaments). More important tournaments and tournaments closer to the Olympics carried more points.