Jason Morris Judo Center's Travis Stevens placed ninth Tuesday in the 81 kg division judo competition at his first Olympic Games.
Stevens opened his day with a dominant win over Franklin Ceisneros of El Salvador as he scored a couple times before arm-barring his opponent into submitting to move into the second round.
Stevens then faced eventual gold medalist and 10-time World Cup medalist and former European Champion Ole Bischof of Germany. The match was a back and forth battle that the experienced German managed to win 2 shidos (penalties) to one.
In one of the day's biggest upsets, Bischof then dispatched reigning world champion Tiago Camilo of Brazil in the quarterfinals, keeping Stevens' medal hopes alive as he moved down to the repechage, where athletes can fight through for bronze.
Stevens' next opponent, Mehman Azizov of Azerbaijan, was a 17-time World Cup medalist who placed fifth in the 2004 Olympics in Athens, but Stevens controlled the match from the first minute. Azizov was awarded the first penalty of the match and a pair of penalties for both players soon followed before Stevens threw Azizmov for a waza-ari (half-point) score. In the final minute, Azizmov still hadn't attacked and was given a third penalty, which, combined with the throw for a waza-ari earlier in the match, gave Stevens the win with 54 seconds remaining.
Stevens' next opponent was Camilo, who won the 2007 World Championships in spectacular fashion, throwing all of his opponents for ippon (instant win). Down by two penalties, Stevens was thrown by Camilo for a koka score, but still didn't give up, nearly tying the match with a throw that was scored as a yuko in the fourth minute.
Camilo barely held onto the narrow lead for the final 60 seconds to win the match. Camilo would continue on the win a bronze medal, while Stevens placed ninth.
Travis fought extremely well and nearly pulled off a couple huge upsets, not to mention knocking off Azizov, who is a quality player. This is certainly a great result for Travis and I am excited for his future.
He plans to return to international competition in the fall with stops at the U.S. Open and Rendez-Vous Canada, as well as a trip to fight in Europe.
"I'm going to go back to the village and go for a run tonight and then do a workout tomorrow," Travis said. "I want to get right back into training and go through the tapes. If you wait a month, you start to forget things, so I'm staying through freestyle wrestling and then I want to get back in the dojo."
USA Judo Team head coach Jason Morris is also posting photos to accompany his blog in the gallery "Olympic Experience". You can view the latest photos by clicking here, or view the entire gallery by clicking here.
For more on the USA Judo Team, go to the USA Judo Web site at usjudo.org.
