Yasuhiro Yamashita is a true judo legend that almost all fans of this sport know about. Despite the fact that he was engaged in competitive activities for relatively short time, he managed to achieve successes in a short period of time, which many professional judokas can only dream of.
Fans of a famous athlete
This article is provided for fans of this talented athlete who would like to know some interesting information related to the activities of their idol. Below are a lot of interesting facts that will surely be able to interest fans of the famous judoka.
Place and date of birth
Yasuhiro Yamashita was born on June 1, 1952 in the provincial town of Yamato. This village is located in the Japanese administrative unit of Kummamoto.
Biography
Oddly enough, in judo Yasuhiro Yamashita brought him overweight. As a child, he was a very large child, which could not but disturb his mother. On top of that, Yasuhiro was a very troubled boy who often went into various fights and hooligans. Excessive fullness and poor behavior forced the boy's mother to take extreme measures - she took him to training in judo. Since then, as Yamashita himself says, he almost lived in a dojo. Parents of the future professional athlete hoped that intense exercise will help their son burn excess body fat. But, according to Yasuhiro himself, despite the achievements in judo and the pride of his parents, he did not succeed in losing weight.
Yasuhiro Yamashita had 3 teachers, from whom he learned all the wisdom of oriental martial arts: Seiki Fujitsubo, Reitsuke Shirasi and Nobuyuki Sato. These three people, in fact, made him the person that he is now. Year after year, his spirit and body were tempered on the training field, forming from him a truly great athlete.
Sports activities
This may surprise someone, but Yamashita ended his sporting career quite early. The competitive activity of the Japanese judoka began at the age of 13 and ended when he was already 38. During all this time he took part in 599 competitions (and this is not counting the training competitions that were not included in the official register). According to statistics, over the past 8 years of his sports career, he won 203 times in a row (!). But, despite such great successes and achievements, Yasuhiro always said that he did not feel that he had reached the summit. In his opinion, ambition and the desire to win are normal, but it is equally important to suppress your selfish impulses and not let anger take over your mind. He learned this throughout his career as a judoka.
Yamashita explained his phenomenal victories, which still surprise him, by the following factors:
- He had good health and enviable physical strength.
- He was very stubborn and always tried to achieve his goals.
- He was very lucky because he was in the right environment.
- He was almost never satisfied with his results and combat technique, and therefore he always tried to improve himself and improve his fighting skills.
Over the years of training and competition, he developed an effective strategy, thanks to which he almost always managed to get out of the battle as a winner. During the competition, he sought out the weaknesses of his opponent, and then used his strengths against them. Almost every time he managed to take his opponents by surprise, because they could not predict Yasuhiro’s further actions. At first glance, there is nothing complicated in such a strategy, but in reality, the athlete assures, it is quite difficult to adhere to this technique.
Yamashita has always argued that in every fight you can both attack and defend. But no matter what position the fighter is in, he can lose if he doubts his strength and gives slack. A lack of confidence in their capabilities can break even an experienced fighter who has previously won many professional fights. Even if a judoka loses, he must not give up in advance, but, on the contrary, he must try to squeeze the maximum out of his efforts and overcome himself. And in the case when the fighter wins, he needs not to relax and keep his eyes open, because his losing opponent can at any moment launch an unexpected attack.
Yasuhiro Yamashita officially left the big sport on June 17, 1985.
Useful Tips
An experienced judoka, on whose account hundreds of victories, gave some advice to young athletes:
- Always listen to the useful instructions of your teachers.
- Try to find time to think through your own technique.
- Learn something important at every opportunity.
- Overcome your main weaknesses, but rather try to use them to your advantage.
And, just as importantly, one should always strive to be better than you are and believe in your own strengths. Such tips are useful not only for beginner judokas, but also for ordinary people who want to achieve certain goals in everyday life.
How the judo world star lives now
Currently, Yamashita works as a consultant for various sports organizations. He is also vice president of the Judo Federation in Japan.
Sports achivments
Here is a list of the main awards of Yasuhiro Yamashita, which he achieved through his sports and social activities:
- Gold medal for winning the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles (absolute category).
- Gold medal for winning the 1979 Judo World Championships held in Paris (category over 95 kilograms).
- Gold medal for winning the 1981 Judo World Championships held in Maastricht (category over 95 kilograms).
- Gold medal for winning the 1981 Judo World Championships held in Maastricht (absolute category).
- Gold medal for winning the 1983 Judo World Championships held in Moscow (category over 95 kilograms).
It is noteworthy that Yamashita became the last Olympic judo champion to compete in the absolute category. Since 1985, this category has been removed from the Olympic program. Olympic champions who performed in the absolute category also include Dutch judoists Anton Gesink (1986) and Wim Ryuska (1976), Japanese Haruki Uemura (1980) and German Dietmar Lorenz (1984).
Order of Friendship
As mentioned earlier, Yamashita is not only a former athlete, but also the vice president of the Japanese Judo Federation, participating in various organizations and international events. On February 13, 2014, he received the Russian Order of Friendship for his services in the field of social activities. Such a prestigious award was presented to him by Evgeny Afanasyev, the Ambassador of Russia to Japan.
As you can see, the biography of Yasuhiro Yamashita was full of various interesting moments and significant events. This athlete always achieved what he wanted, and never stopped there. Even the impressive number of victories in a row, exceeded two hundred, did not cause him either pride or narcissism. He always soberly assessed his own abilities and throughout his career he tried to improve his spirit and body, even despite the fact that he was almost unmatched among judokas.
We hope this information was useful to you, and you learned something new.