Judoka Hifumi Abe and his sister Uta have been inspiring each other since childhood, and now they both have an Olympic gold medal in the sport, won on Sunday at the Tokyo Games.
"My brother's starting now, so I can't relax," Uta, 21, told reporters after winning the 52-kilogram division final in women's judo, a match that went to overtime. When her brother's final bout started in the men's 66-kilogram division, she stood near the tatami mats and watched with her hands tightly clasped in front of her chest.
She raised her arms and jumped in the air the moment he won.
Uta and Hifumi were born in Kobe. Hifumi, now 23, was in kindergarten when he first saw judo on TV, thought it was cool and started going to judo class. However, he cried a lot at first because he was afraid of elementary school children who were bigger than him.
Hifumi had a small build and once lost to a girl when he was a third grader at elementary school, even though he had strong arms and good enough balance to walk on his hands for 20 meters.
Hifumi wanted to be No. 1. Helped by his father Koji, now 51, Hifumi started training his core and hips by using tubes and a large exercise ball. He would also run to the judo class, which was 3 kilometers away from his home.
"He never slacked off in any practice. He worked harder than anyone else," said Yukihiro Takata, 57, who taught Hifumi in the judo class at Hyogo Shonen Kodamakai.
However, he tensed up in matches, no matter how hard he had trained. Because he would hardly speak at these times, his mother Ai, now 49, gave him something special: red underwear. It represented her desire for Hifumi to lift himself up because "red boosts the wearer's fighting spirit," she said.
Uta was 5 years old when she started going to the same judo class as her brother.
"It was fun to meet friends and chat with them. I had no interest in judo, so I didn't practice very much," she recalled with a smile.
However, Uta learned more quickly than her brother. Even when she hadn't been taught a certain technique yet, she learned how to execute it by watching others. She got serious about judo after her brother won a national event in consecutive years, a winning streak that began when he was in the second year of junior high school.
"I didn't like it that only my brother received praise and attention. I thought I could do it, too," Uta said.
She lost in the finals of the national event when she was in her second year of junior high school. Uta hated to lose to anyone, so she watched videos of her brother's bouts and tried to imitate his movements. She also began writing what she was taught and how she felt in a notebook.
Uta won the national event a year later.
The siblings improved as they competed with each other. In the 2018 world championships, they became the first Japanese brother and sister to win at the same event, and it's been their strong desire to repeat that feat at the Tokyo Games.
However, the ascendance of a strong rival judoka threatened that possibility for Hifumi, and Uta lost a match that would have guaranteed her a place at the Games had she won. At one point, she said, "There's a kind of hardship only we can understand."
The siblings won their gold medals after overcoming difficulties only they have experienced. As they waited for their medal ceremonies, they happily hugged and congratulated each other.
"This is the best day of our lives," Hifumi said.
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