Former University of Bath sporting scholar Prisca Awiti-Alcaraz produced a series of inspired performances to win an incredible judo silver at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
Awiti-Alcaraz, who represents Mexico, saw off a host of the world’s leading judoka on her way to the final of the women’s -63kg competition in the Champ-de-Mars Arena.
She made a strong start in the gold-medal showdown, taking an early lead through wazi-ari, but Slovenia’s Andreja Leski was able to turn the contest on its head and win gold with ippon.
It was an unforgettable day for the London-born judoka, whose club remains Team Bath Judo where she trained from 2015 to 2021. She placed 17th on her Olympics debut in Tokyo three years ago and her previous best result was a fifth-place finish at the 2023 World Championships.
Adam Hall, High Performance Judo Coach at the University of Bath, said: “What an outstanding performance from Prisca. We’ve always known she had it in her to perform at the very highest level and today was the perfect day to produce that quality and consistency in her performances. She has worked so hard for this achievement and all of us here at Team Bath are incredibly proud – congratulations to Prisca, the Mexican Judo federation and Enfield Judo Club where she started this journey.”
Awiti-Alcaraz – who was inspired as a young judoka by fellow University of Bath alumna Gemma Gibbons, who famously won silver at London 2012 – began her Olympic competition in confident style, beating Nigara Shaheen of the Olympic Refugee Team by ippon inside 35 seconds of her Round of 32 contest.
She then produced one of the performances of her career to beat Poland’s Angelika Szymanska, the World Championships silver-medallist, by waza-ari before recording a golden score victory over Austria’s Lubjana Piovesana – also formerly of Great Britain and ranked number four in the world – in the quarter-finals.
There was a break before the semi-finals but no drop in intensity from Awiti-Alcaraz, who dominated her bout against Croatia’s Katarina Kristo and led through waza-ari before sealing victory with ippon.
Awiti-Alcaraz studied Sports Performance at the University from 2015, where she was supported by a Sports Scholarship, and continued to train in the Team Bath Sports Training Village dojo until her first Olympic appearance at the rescheduled Tokyo Games in 2021. She was coached by the late Juergen Klinger and Tom Reed before moving to Mexico full-time.
Visit teambath.com/judo to find out more about the judo programme at the University of Bath.
With thanks to Team Bath
