Abe Uta: Why resilience is key
Fit and raring to go after surgery to both shoulders, the Tokyo 2020 women's 52kg gold medallist and two-time world champion is ready for all comers at the 2022 worlds on a key stop for Paris 2024.
The good news is that Abe Uta is fit again.
Which, conversely, is the bad news to the rest of the women's 52-kilogram competition at the Judo World Championships 2022 starting on Thursday (6 October) in Tashkent.
"Think this might be the most important meet looking ahead to Paris", Abe said in Tokyo ahead of her departure to the capital of Uzbekistan.
"I want to be resilient, give it everything I have. Ippon judo is my judo and it's how I will try to win the championship.
"I'm expecting every judoka in the world to come after me, so bring it on. I hope I can show everyone what I'm about."
It's been 14 months since Abe and her older brother Hifumi made Olympic history at the Tokyo 2020 Games in 2021 by becoming the first siblings to become champions on the same day.
In the months following the triumph, however, Uta had surgery on both shoulders, an issue she had been dealing with throughout the march to her first Olympic gold medal.
Uta did not compete for half a year and returned to the mat in April, when she competed in just one match at the All Japan Weight Category Championships before pulling out - and revealing the procedure she'd had on her shoulders.
The 22-year-old came back to international judo in July 2022 at the Grand Prix Zagreb - which she won over Kosovo's Tokyo 2020 48kg champion Distria Krasniqi.
In Zagreb, Uta said she felt around 80 per cent healthy and the two-time world champion was aiming to fill out the remaining 20 per cent by October.
Judging by her comments it looks like she has, as the Abes look to reproduce their feat from the summer of 2021 in Tashkent - and in two years' time in Paris, which they have not been shy about saying.
"If I focus on the task at hand, take it one match at a time, we should be able to win the championship together", Uta said. "But first things first, I need to focus on me.
"I want to experience the emotions all over again. That's my theme (for Paris). I'm motivating myself by wanting to relive how I felt when I won the title.
"(In Tashkent), I want to win it no matter what for all the people who supported me".