Weight Classes Explained

Judo is a weight-class oriented sport, ensuring fair and balanced competition by grouping athletes according to both gender and bodyweight. For men, the weight divisions are -60kg, -66kg, -73kg, -81kg, -90kg, -100kg, and +100kg, while for women, they are -48kg, -52kg, -57kg, -63kg, -70kg, -78kg, and +78kg. These divisions allow judoka to compete against opponents of similar size and strength, making technique, strategy, and conditioning the deciding factors rather than sheer weight advantage. Weight classes are a cornerstone of modern competitive judo, promoting fairness and encouraging athletes to tailor their training, nutrition, and style to the demands of their category.

Most competitions use a "same day" weigh in meaning weigh ins are often performed in the morning before you fight. weigh ins in the IJF allow a 0.8kg allowance for gi bottoms and a t shirt to be worn in weigh in, meaning if you are aiming for -66kg and weigh in at 66.7kg you still make the category. Higher level competitions such as national or international level may use a day before weigh in allowing for athletes to cut weight and recover, however a 5% random weight check rule was recently implemented meaning that on fight day athletes can be randomly selected to be test weighed and if it is found the athlete is more than 5% over the maximum category allowed weight they may be subject to disqualification.