Christa Deguchi ( 出口クリスタ ''Deguchi Christa,'' born 29 October 1995) is a Canadian

judo is an unarmed modern Japanese martial art, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally.『日本大百科全書』電子版【柔道】(CD-ROM version of Encyclopedia Nipponica, "Judo") ...

ka.

Switch to representing Canada

In 2017, Deguchi switched to representing Canada from where she was born, Japan. Deguchi's dad is from Canada and this allowed her to compete for the country. In 2012, Deguchi was approached to represent Canada, before she competed for Japan but she refused. Realizing her best bet to make the Olympics would be competing for Canada, Deguchi eventually agreed to represent Canada.

Career

Deguchi participated at the

2018 World Judo Championships The 2018 World Judo Championships was held between 20 and 27 September 2018 at National Gymnastics Arena in Baku Baku (, ; az, Bakı ) is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of ...

, winning a bronze medal. This made her the first female judoka representing Canada to win a

World Judo Championships The World Judo Championships are the highest level of international judo competition, along with the Olympic judo competition. The championships are held once every year (except the years when the Olympics take place) by the International Judo ...

medal. She won her first gold medal in the 2019 world championship In 2021, she won the gold medal in her event at the

2021 Judo Grand Slam Antalya The 2021 Judo Grand Slam Antalya was held at the Antalya Arena in Antalya, Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontine ...

held in Antalya, Turkey. In August 2022, competing in her first major

multi-sport event A multi-sport event is an organized sporting event, often held over multiple days, featuring competition in many different sports among organized teams of athletes from (mostly) nation-states. The first major, modern, multi-sport event of intern ...

, the

2022 Commonwealth Games The 2022 Commonwealth Games, officially known as the XXII Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Birmingham 2022, was an international multi-sport event for members of the Commonwealth of Nations that took place in Birmingham, England bet ...

, Deguchi won the gold medal, defeating

Acelya Toprak Acelya Toprak (born 1 June 1998) is an English international judoka. She has represented England at the Commonwealth Games and won a silver medal. Biography Toprak was won the 2017 European junior silver medal and won gold at the Dubrovnik Euro ...

of England in the gold medal match of the 57 kg event. In 2022, she won gold at the

2022 Judo Grand Slam Baku The 2022 Judo Grand Slam Baku was held at the Heydar Aliyev Sport Arena in Baku, Azerbaijan, from 4 to 6 November 2022 as part of the IJF World Tour and during the 2024 Summer Olympics qualification period. Medal summary Men's events Women' ...

International Results

Representing Canada

As of 27 August 2019

Representing Japan

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Deguchi, Christa 1995 births Living people Canadian female judoka Canadian sportspeople of Japanese descent People from Nagano (city) World judo champions 21st-century Canadian women Judoka at the 2022 Commonwealth Games Commonwealth Games gold medallists for Canada