From Tokyo to LA: Judo Star Shoichiro Mukai Vows to Bounce Back After Olympic Setback

Seven weight classes were held for men, and in the second round of the 90kg class, 2021 Tokyo Olympics representative Shoichiro Mukai (Toshin Kogyo) was defeated by No. 1 seed Kawabata Tomei (Kokushikan University), the 23rd and 2024 World Junior Championship champion. He suffered a loss and was eliminated. At one point he moved to the 100kg weight class, but this is his second fight since moving back up the weight class. The injury to his right side five days before the match had a big impact on him, and he remained undeterred, saying, “Of course (my opponent) was strong, but today’s conditions are enough. I can still go all the way.”

After the Tokyo Olympics, where he lost in the third round and missed out on a medal, he continued to slump and missed out on making the Paris Olympics team. After that, his motivation began to decline, and he recalls, “I kept going just to find a place to die.” The turning point was when I moved to the United States alone from May to July of this year. While teaching judo to men and women of all ages, from ages 3 or 4 to those in their 60s, at a dojo in Dallas, Texas, he said, “I found judo, which I had always hated, to be fun.”

The instruction was intense, continuing intermittently from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m., with breaks in between, but he said, “Because I’m Japanese, (the students) ask me questions eagerly. He said he had many surprises and discoveries, saying, “They don’t just tell me what they want to do, they tell me what they want to do.” Although it was a short-term stay of about two months, he said that he had the option of becoming a coach overseas in the future, and for that reason, “I am continuing (in active service) to increase my value.”

Kawabata, who I competed against that day, is 18 years old, and Sanshiro Murao, who won a silver medal on the Paris Olympics team, is 24 years old, so the men’s 90kg class is a young group with a lot of momentum. Although he will be 32 years old by the time of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, Mukai is full of fighting spirit, saying, “I want to go to Los Angeles and win the gold medal, so I want to take one step at a time, even if it’s just a small step, toward that goal.”

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