Nora Gjakova: Setting new goals for Kosovan athletes

I feel proud of what I achieved at Tokyo 2020. Winning a gold medal at the Games is the dream for any athlete. It was a really special moment. I thought about everyone who helped me get there: my coach, my family and friends, my supporters back in Kosovo.

I won bronze at the World Championships two months before winning gold at Tokyo, and at the time I told myself, “Don’t forget that your goal is the Olympics.” I always try to remind myself that I have a goal, and it’s my responsibility to keep working towards it.

I was an Olympic Solidarity scholarship holder at Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020, both of which I qualified for, and now I’m going for Paris 2024. That’s the result of being able to travel to high-quality training camps – which was my main preparation ahead of Tokyo – and paying for smaller things like food, accommodation, nutrition and physiotherapy.

The hope is that there will be many more successes for Kosovan athletes. More and more of us are now benefitting from Olympic Solidarity, especially in judo. People are seeing that almost every judoka who has been backed in this way has qualified for the Olympic Games. In other words, that support is really paying off.