Judo at the 2000 Sydney Summer Games:

After winning the 1996 gold medal in this class, Tadahiro Nomura also won the 1997 World Championships. He did not compete at the 1999 World Championships, won by Cuba’s Manolo Poulot. Both were drawn in Pool B at Sydney and met in the pool final, after they had easily won their preliminary matches. It was an epic match with Nomura winning only by yusei-gachi. After that match, the final was easy for Nomura. Facing Korea’s Jeong Seok-Gyeong. Nomura won with sumi-otoshi for ippon in only 14 seconds, the fastest final in Olympic history. Nomura would win his third consecutive gold medal in this event in 2004. He then stayed out of competition for two years but returned to try to win a four gold medal in 2008. However, he did not make the Japanese team for Beijing and retired in mid-2008.