Ovini Uera (born 18 January 1988) is a Nauruan

judo is an unarmed gendai budō, modern Japanese martial art, combat sport, 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 Encyc ...

ka.

Preparation

Uera, who was a catering manager and worked for

Nauru Airlines Nauru Air Corporation, trading as Nauru Airlines (formerly trading as Our Airline and Air Nauru), is the flag carrier of the Republic of Nauru. It operates scheduled international services to other Pacific islands and Australia. Its main base is ...

, had a daily routine that started with a warm up at 6am, and practiced at a gym with no walls, and had rain falling through the roof.

Sled Dowabobo Sled Tavare Dowabobo (born 31 March 1983) is a Nauruan judoka. He participated at the 2012 Summer Olympics in the Men's 73 kg event, but was eliminated in the first round by Navruz Jurakobilov Navruz Jurakobilov is an Uzbek judoka. He compe ...

was his coach and physiotherapist. Uera raised funds from barbecues and door knocking. He studied YouTube videos of

Varlam Liparteliani Varlam Liparteliani (; born 27 February 1989) is a Georgian retired judoka. He has won silver at Olympic and World level. Career Liparteliani competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics in the 90 kg event and lost in the second round to Mark An ...

Career

He competed at the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...

, in the men's 90 kg where he defeated Renick James in the second round but lost to

in the third round. He was the flag bearer for Nauru during the closing ceremony.

References

External links

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Short recorded interview with BBC in Rio in 2016
1988 births Living people Nauruan male judoka Olympic judoka for Nauru Judoka at the 2016 Summer Olympics {{judo-bio-stub