“That’s the funny thing,” says Alice Schlesinger, upon being asked if she still enjoys the combat sport from which she makes her living. “The two years I couldn’t do judo is the time I realised how much I loved doing it. When you get used to doing it every day, sometimes you forget about why you’re doing it. But when they told me I couldn’t do it any more, it was like: ‘Why can’t you let me do the only thing I really want to do?’ That’s probably the best thing I can take out of those two years: me falling in love again with judo.”
The “they” she speaks of is the Israel Judo Association, while the lengthy period in exile was a traumatic and often lonely time for the Israeli athlete who has committed herself to Great Britain following a lengthy, and often poisonous, dispute with her former governing body that kept her out of competition for two years after London 2012.
Following a drawn-out and rancorous public row in which Schlesinger said the association president, Moshe Ponte, had tried to ruin her chances of competing at Rio 2016, the country’s former senior judoka eventually convened a press conference to announce that she would no longer represent Israel.
Despite approaches from various other national federations, less than two weeks later it was confirmed the 27-year-old would compete for Great Britain, where she is qualified as a citizen through her English mother.
“It was a really difficult time,” says Schlesinger, who begins her world championship in the -63kg division in Kazakhstan on Thursday. “But I’m now trying to think it’s behind me. I’ve moved on, I’m in a really great team now. I feel really good in this team, everybody’s really nice, really kind. So yes, I’ve been through two really difficult years but now I’m in a really good place and very happy.”
A two-times Olympian, ranked ninth in her weight division, who has won bronze medals at the world and European championships, Schlesinger is trained by her partner, Pavel Mosin, whose role was one of several issues in her dispute with the Israeli federation. As Schlesinger prepared for the championships in Astana, the couple felt lucky just to be included despite Schlesinger’s training having been interrupted by injury. There was a time not so long ago that she feared she might never step on a judo mat in competition again.
“I was trying to stay positive and hope for the best but at one point I thought my judo career was over,” she says. “I think I was lucky to have my family and my coach and partner supporting me because if not I don’t know where I’d be today. I think I got here because I had all that support and because my coach got me to try sambo, which is similar to judo, to have new goals to look forward to. That really helped to keep my frame of mind as a player and as a person who does sport.”
Despite the upheaval in her own world and the potential knock-on effects from being parachuted into a new squad, Schlesinger has nothing but good things to say about her new team-mates, who include the London 2012 silver medallist Gemma Gibbons.
She admits her first training camp was “a bit weird” because some of the British girls introduced themselves, while others took a little longer to extend the hand of friendship. “We laugh about that now,” she says. “I feel as if I’ve been with them forever. I feel as if we’re all good friends and it’s really been great. I didn’t expect it to be as good as it is.”
Despite tearing her hamstring in the buildup to the championships, Schlesinger remains upbeat and understandably glad to be back competing, considering the problems she has endured.
“I don’t know if it will affect the actual day but my preparation wasn’t as good as it could have been,” she says of her injury. “I’m trying not to think about it too much and, come the day, I’ll just do my best.”
