History

Dr. Jigoro Kano was born in 28th October 1860 in country Japan. He later moved with his family to Tokyo and studied English, German and Japanese as an arts student at Tokyo University. During this time he studied a number of different forms of Samurai fighting styles including Jujitsu. He selected and refined techniques to form create a new martial art, Judo. The techniques that he selected were those that used maximum efficiency for minimum effort. In 1882 he begun to teach Judo in the Buddist temple of Eshoji. He named his new school the Kodokan.

From 1886 to 1888 the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Board held competitions between Jujitsu and Judo schools in order to decide which system of self defence would be adopted by the Japanese Police. In the end Judo won.

Dr. Jigoro Kano later became a senator of the Imperial Court and the first Japanese member of the International Olympic committee. The first World Championships were help in Tokyo in 1956. Judo was introduced as an Olympic sport in the 1964 Olympic games which were held in Toyko. Women's Judo became an Olympics Sport in the 1992 Barcelona Olympic games.

Australia has competed in every Olympic judo competition since Tokyo 1964