Body mass variation of judo athletes during the Tokyo Olympic Games and its relationship with performance in the mixed team competition

Abstract

Purpose

This study aimed to verify the body mass (BM) gain between individual and the judo mixed team (JMT) weigh-ins (2–7 days) and its impact on performance during the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

Methods

A total of 105 athletes composed JMTs, but only 68 competed: 39 were from lighter weight categories than JMT ones (i.e., ≤ 57 kg and ≤ 70 kg for females, and ≤ 73 kg and ≤ 90 kg for males) and allowed to gain BM up to the limit of JMT categories, whereas 29 pertained to the JMT categories and were limited by 2 kg between weigh-ins.

Results

The lighter group gained more BM (4.0 ± 2.1 kg versus 1.6 ± 0.8 kg; Z = −6.52; P < 0.001; r = −0.64), a higher percentage of BM (5.7 ± 2.9% versus 2.3 ± 1.2%; Z = −6.13; P < 0.001; r = −0.60), and a higher percentage of BM per day (1.5 ± 0.9% per day versus 0.6 ± 0.3% per day; Z = −6.42; P < 0.001; r = 0.63) than those limited by the 2 kg rule. Total match time (r = 0.64), total number of matches (r = 0.67), and days between weigh-ins (r = 0.48) were positively correlated with BM gain (P < 0.05).

Conclusions

BM increment was high, but correlated with more frequent and longer matches.