Ayumi Tanimoto

Ayumi Tanimoto ( Japanese 谷 本 歩 実 Tanimoto Ayumi ; born August 4, 1981 in Anjō ) is a former Japanese judoka and two-time Olympic champion. She competed in the weight class up to 63 kilograms, the light middleweight .

Tanimoto began her career in 2000 with second place at the Junior World Championships. In 2001 she won the Asian Championships in Ulaanbaatar and won the bronze medal at the World Championships in Munich. In 2002, she also won the Asian Games in Busan. After a year without an international victory, she won the title again at the 2004 Asian Championships in Almaty. Three months later, she won the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens in the final against Austrian Claudia Heill .

At the World Championships in Cairo in 2005, she lost to the French Lucie Décosse in the final . In 2006 she won the bronze medal at the Asian Games. She also won bronze at the 2007 World Championships in Rio de Janeiro. After Tanimoto had won the Japanese Championships in 2006 and 2007, she lost to Yoshie Ueno in 2008 . Even so, Tanimoto received the nomination for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. There she won her second Olympic gold medal in the final against Lucie Décosse. Tanimoto achieved her last international success with a victory at the 2009 World Cup in Prague.

Web links

• Ayumi Tanimoto in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Ayumi Tanimoto on Judoinside (English)