The 283 participants at the Grand Slam in Paris is the lowest number of athletes of this century in Paris. The lowest number of the century was in 2002 with 347 judoka. This edition 283 are active, a change of almost 20% for a medal.
Both the number of female and male athletes is far lower than the record in two decades. The 118 women have a chance of 24% for a medal. Only 14 of the 62 ever held Grand Slam had even lower numbers of female participants. It wouldn’t be a surprise if the Baku Grand Slam shows the same or even lower numbers, which is actually an opportunity to gain a lot of points for newcomers. So far the Grand Slam of Paris is the most consequently held event since 2009, before called the Tournoi de Paris. It is followed by Grand Slams in Russia, although held in various cities, still twelve editions, only last year the Grand Slam was cancelled where Paris could proceed in February. The Grand Slams in Japan also came to an end due to the pandemic in 2020 and this year, but was the first ever Grand Slam, held in December 2008. Due to the pandemic organisers of Grand Prixs where upgraded to Grand Slam level such as Israel, Hungary, Turkey, Uzbekistan and Georgia.
This year’s edition in Paris has 31 athletes in the U73kg category, which is the most crowded event. The women’s +78kg is with 9 judoka the weakest division. The category U81kg has the number one and two of the World Ranking list among the participants with Grigalashvili and Casse. The categories U60kg and U66kg have no one in the top 10. Tornike Tsjakadoea (NED, WRL-14)is the highest seeded athlete U60kg and he is the only athlete in the top 30. Japan’s lightweight Ryuju Nagayama cancelled his participation at the latest moment, he would likely have won with his fingers in his nose, which is our subjective conclusion. This is why we look forward to the U81kg division and men’s U73kg with Tsend-Ochir Tsogtbaatar and Soichi Hashimoto. Also the women’s U48kg will have 8 seeded players in the top 17 of the World, which is the division with the highest average quality among the seeded players.
Grand Slam organizing cities
13 Paris
10 Tokyo
6 Abu Dhabi
6 Baku
5 Moscow
4 Rio de Janeiro