Idalys Ortiz

Idalys Ortiz Bocourt (born 27 September 1989) is a Cuban judoka.[4] She competed in the over 78 kg division at the 2008, 2012 and 2016 Olympics and won a medal on each occasion.

Idalys Ortiz

Ortiz at the 2016 Olympics
Personal information
Full name	Idalys Ortiz Boucurt
Nationality	Cuban
Born	27 September 1989 Pinar del Río, Cuba[1][2]
Height	180 cm (5 ft 11 in)[3]
Weight	82 kg (181 lb)
Sport
Country	Cuba
Sport	Judo
Event(s)	+78 kg
Medal record Representing  Cuba Olympic Games 2012 London +78 kg 2016 Rio de Janeiro +78 kg 2008 Beijing +78 kg World Championships 2013 Rio de Janeiro +78 kg 2014 Chelyabinsk +78 kg 2018 Baku +78 kg 2019 Tokyo +78 kg 2009 Rotterdam +78 kg 2010 Tokyo +78 kg 2015 Astana +78 kg 2017 Marrakesh Openweight Pan American Games 2011 Guadalajara +78 kg 2015 Toronto +78 kg 2019 Lima +78 kg Pan American Championships 2007 Montreal Openweight 2008 Miami +78 kg 2009 Buenos Aires +78 kg 2009 Buenos Aires Openweight 2010 San Salvador +78 kg 2010 San Salvador Openweight 2011 Guadalajara +78 kg 2012 Montreal +78 kg 2013 San José +78 kg 2014 Guayaquil +78 kg 2015 Edmonton +78 kg 2016 Havana +78 kg 2018 San José +78 kg 2019 Lima +78 kg Universiade 2013 Kazan Open weight 2013 Kazan +78 kg

Career

Ortiz took up judo aged 10 and was included in the national team at 15.[2][5] At the age of 18, she became the youngest Olympic medalist in the heavyweight category, winning a bronze medal in 2008.

Beijing Olympics

In her first match at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, she stood against a big (170 lb) Egyptian judoka Samah Ramadan. Ramadan stayed and waited for an opportunity to use her, possibly only, technique of immobilizing her opponent by lying on top. During the match, Ortiz tried many techniques for ippon but none were successful, except for the last move just a few seconds before the end of the match, when Samah Ramadan was already tired.

In her second match in Beijing, Ortiz went against Janelle Shepherd from Australia. The match had a good tempo and ended quickly with Ortiz making an ippon (an okuri-eri-jime). In the third match, the semifinals, she went against later Olympic champion and controversial judoka Tong Wen from China. This was a close match full of action and could have gone either way. However, Wen won the match as one of Ortiz's techniques was counted as yuko. Ortiz won the bronze medal in her match against Dorjgotovyn Tserenkhand from Mongolia, winning with a nice ippon (O-goshi).

2012 Summer Olympics

At the 2012 Olympics, Ortiz won the gold medal. She beat Adysângela Moniz with a tsuri-goshi in her first match.[6] She then beat Yelena Ivashchenko before avenging her 2008 defeat by Tong Wen, beating her with a te-guruma.[6] She then beat Mika Sugimoto in the final.[6] She was the first non-Asian winner of the heavyweight category, and the first Cuban judo gold medalist in 12 years.[5][2]

At the 2015 Pan American Championships she beat Vanessa Zambotti in the final, having beaten Nina Cutro-Kelly in the semifinals.[7] It was one of 3 gold medals for Cuba.[7]

2016 Summer Olympics

At the 2016 Olympics, Ortiz completed her medal collection, winning a silver medal.[6] She beat Kseniya Chibisova with a tawara-gaeshi, then Kim Min-Jeong with a yoko-shiho-gatame.[6] In the semifinal she beat Kanae Yamabe with a uki-goshi before losing the final to Émilie Andéol.[6] She finished the season ranked world number one, having won 5 IJF events along with her Olympic silver.[8][9]

She won the bronze medal in the 2017 World Openweight Championships, beating Romane Dicko with a shime-waza.[10]

In 2018, she won her first IJF title since 2016.[11] She was also part of the Cuba team that won 5 gold medals at the 2018 Pan American Championships.[12]

Ortiz credits her success to hard training, 7 hours a day, and a regime that involves training against men, because of the few women in her weight category.[5]

References

1. Idalys Ortiz Archived 2 November 2012 at the Wayback Machine. sports-reference.com
2. Idalys Ortiz. nbcolympics.com
3. Idalys Ortiz Archived 26 August 2016 at the Wayback Machine. rio2016.com
4. IJF profile
5. "Idalys Ortiz eager to take second Olympic gold medal". Retrieved 15 September 2018.
6. "Idalys Ortiz Bio, Stats, and Results". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Archived from the original on 18 April 2020. Retrieved 15 September 2018.
7. "Kayla Harrison wins clash with Mayra Aguiar". Retrieved 15 September 2018.
8. "IJF awards 14 World leaders 50,000 USD each". Retrieved 15 September 2018.
9. "Year overview of the World Leading women judoka of 2016". Retrieved 15 September 2018.
10. "Japanese Sarah Asahina takes the Open World title". Retrieved 15 September 2018.
11. "Cuban legend Ortiz wins first IJF gold since 2016 ahead of Worlds". Retrieved 15 September 2018.
12. "Cuba takes five golds at Pan American Championships". Retrieved 15 September 2018.

External links

• Idalys Ortiz at the International Judo Federation
• Idalys Ortiz at JudoInside.com
• Idalys Ortiz at Olympics at Sports-Reference.com (archived)
• Idalis Ortiz on official Cuban web encyclopedia EcuRed (Spanish)