Olympics: Canadian Shady Elnahas men’s judo competition ends

PARIS –

When he got out of bed Thursday in the Olympic Village in Paris, Canadian judoka Shady Elnahas felt something was wrong. The 26-year-old from Toronto couldn’t shake the discomfort and saw his quest for a medal cut short in his first fight of the day.

Elnahas, originally from Alexandria, Egypt, was defeated in the round of 16 of the 100-kilogram category after 34 seconds of sudden-death extension at the Champ-de-Mars Arena by a waza-ari from Switzerland’s Daniel Eich.

“When the day started, I didn’t feel really good,” Elnahas said. “You have to find a way, but I couldn’t find one. … Nothing worked. My body seemed sluggish.”

That’s the beauty and the cruelty of the Olympics, said head coach Antoine Valois-Fortier. “It’s one day every four years. You wake up and it’s today, it’s not tomorrow or yesterday,” he said.

It is up to the team to find out why Elnahas felt the way he did on Thursday, Valois-Fortier added.

“We have to remember that Shady was fighting for his place two months ago. Maybe the qualification process was long and demanding. Did he have time to recover? These are questions that I don’t have an answer to at the moment,” the coach said.

Eich, who is ranked 14th in the world and finished ninth at the world championship earlier this year, was defeated by Elnahas at last year’s Grand Slam in Tokyo, the only time the two had faced each other before Thursday.

“It’s disappointing to lose to someone you normally beat. But that’s judo — anything can happen,” Elnahas said.

The 26-year-old normally fights aggressively, but seemed to hesitate during Thursday’s elimination match. The judoka, who finished the tournament in ninth place, clearly had a lot of questions for himself as he met Canadian journalists in the mixed zone and talked about a broken thumb he suffered about two weeks ago, which required surgery.

“I haven’t done much judo for a week or two, not really until now. It hurts a little bit, but I was able to fight. The longer the fight went on, the harder I went. But when he countered, that was the end,” he said.

Valois-Fortier clarified that Elnahas was still doing judo at the time, and that he only started again after a recovery period of four or five days.

“We were able to do something good,” the coach said. “For me, the bigger question is, has it affected him mentally?”

This setback is a big disappointment for the Canadian team, who can only take home the gold medal of Christa Deguchi, who won the under 57 kilogram category on Monday.

“Shady didn’t come here for this and over the last few months he has shown that he belongs to the world elite. He must of course be disappointed,” Valois-Fortier said.

Elnahas said he wasn’t sure what to feel or think after Thursday’s results.

“I just want to spend some time with my family and my girlfriend. I’ll think about today later,” he said.

“I’m proud of my path. I’m No. 2 (in the world). The qualifying process was really tough. But I’m not really proud of the day I had today,” he noted.

The high-performance team from Valois-Fortier and Judo Canada had set a goal of winning two to three medals in individual events. The only one still competing is Ana Laura Portuondo Isasi, of La Prairie, Que., in the over-78-kilogram category on Friday, but the judoka, ranked 56th in the world, doesn’t represent a real hope for a medal in the tournament.

Canada will also compete in the mixed team event on Saturday.

Valois-Fortier said he would not discuss the team competition with Elnahas until Friday.

“He needs time to process this defeat,” said the coach.

Elnahas made his Olympic debut at the Tokyo Olympics, where he finished in a tie for fifth place in the same event.

He finished second at the world championships this year and won gold at the Pan American Games in Santiago last year. He is ranked third in the world for his weight class.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published August 1, 2024.