The dress rehearsal was at the Grand Slam Paris on February 9 when a victory over Japan’s Wahana Koga won Daria Bilodid still another gold medal. A normal training regimen over the following five-plus months would have culminated this summer on her sport’s ultimate competitive stage in Tokyo, the birthplace of judo.
For the last several years or even longer, the focus has been on winning Olympic gold, the only feat the 19-year-old athlete has not yet accomplished. She was set to enter her first Olympics as the clear favorite, ranked No. 1 in her weight class (48 kg) since 2018. Now there must be a re-focus, dedicated training for more than another year and hopefully a challenging competition with the cancellation of the 2020 Summer Olympic Games.
Looking at Bilodid, one could readily mistake her for a gymnast with her lean and tall ballerina-type figure, her aggressive judo moves masked behind a beautiful façade, accentuating an enigma. Since her second consecutive World title victory, she has appeared on the pages of Vogue Ukraine, seemingly living a dream while never allowing her rising popularity to distract from the sporting goals she yearns to achieve.
Svitlana Kuznetsova hoped her daughter would pursue rhythmic gymnastics and not follow her and her husband into the harsh world of judo. It did not come as too big a surprise since, from a young age, Daria was exposed to the sport, doing her school work while watching her mother coach a children’s class at Judo Club Spartakovets. Father Gennadiy Bilodid won the European Championship titles in 2001 and 2003 in the -73 kg category and was well aware of the sacrifices judo would entail.
Starting out as a 6-year-old Bilodid immediately showed a special quality, possessing a strong inner self to make it to the top, first visible in the final of her Cadet World Championship. The ability to snatch a victory because of her strong character allowed her to own Cadet, Junior and World championships, the latter of which she first won just shy of her 18th birthday, becoming the youngest world champion in history. Her family boasts of her strong will and character, a super power that transforms her into refusing to accept defeat. Bilodid has shown the ability to snap back, recover emotionally and make a quick decision in the middle of a bout.
Bilodid often uses ouchi gari, a special tripping technique, to win her fights. Early on she encountered difficulty in mastering the technique. She has a unique fighting style for her weight class, given her impressive height advantage (5-foot-8, 106 pounds) against her opponents.
In August 2019, she became the youngest judoka to win back-to-back World championships, successfully defending her title in Tokyo against local fan favorite Funa Tonaki.
Her normal training regimen consists of five hours per day, two hours in the morning and another three hours in the afternoon, six days a week with Sundays off. Her work ethic has paid off with her first major title win at age 15, when she won the European youth judo championship. Less than one year later she repeated her success among adults, becoming the second youngest judoka to win a championship.
Bilodid’s road to success has survived several injury complications. About a month before the 2018 European Games, she suffered a broken jaw during a training session, preventing her from defending her European title. A month before the 2018 World Championships, she broke her nose, again during practice. In spite of the injury and advice that she skip the tournament, Bilodid competed and won the title – she was the youngest ever to win a world crown.
Seven gold medals in 2018, four in 2019 and this year’s aforementioned championship in Paris total an amazing body of superior achievement. This success has prompted foreign representatives to approach Bilodid with financial incentives and elite-level training facilities in exchange for a switch in allegiance. Proposals from Azerbaijan and Georgia were never taken seriously. Bilodid freely acknowledges her patriotism for her native Ukraine.
Dedicated to her sport of judo and the travel involved with international competitions, Bilodid attends Taras Shevchenko National University in Kyiv, studying journalism. After retiring from judo, her career ambition is to be a sports journalist. Before this ambition is realized, there remains the elusive Olympic gold she continues to work toward. This is the ultimate accomplishment that has made all of this hard effort and sacrifice worth it.
Bilodid is affectionately nicknamed “Anaconda” thanks to her signature submission hold known as sankaku-jime, or a triangle choke. This is a type of figure-four chokehold that chokes the opponent by encircling the opponent’s neck and one arm with the legs in a configuration similar to the shape of a triangle. Interestingly, as a young girl Bilodid was very much afraid of snakes and heights.
This unique athlete’s soft eyes turn into a tough gaze as she transforms herself on the tatami in competition. A very young Bilodid displayed a strong personality, often restless and raging. At playgrounds she enjoyed doing pull-ups on horizontal bars. The first two years her father would not attend her competitions out of fear of watching his daughter. These days, her entire family lives and loves judo.
Bilodid has her own way of training. During her teenage years there were no boyfriends, no first love – only judo. She expresses no regrets because life is long and for now it is all about judo – her sport receives maximum effort. There is a time for everything, and judo will get her best shot. She is described by teammates as serious, quiet, a private person to the extreme. She has no close friends, no time for friends when training. She feels fortunate to have her parents with her all the time. Her parents believe she is too hard on herself – there is a time to train, a time to rest and it is important to protect her.
Today there are no worthy partners in Bilodid’s weight class to train with in Ukraine. She has always had an overwhelming desire to win, to be first in any type of competition, and is the last person to leave the gym – it is her way of life. If something is not working, it must be changed, like a technique. She believes if she keeps her head cold, she can defeat anyone. Bilodid cannot allow any negative thoughts or permit a lack of mental concentration on the task at hand, which is defeating her opponent.
In her own words: “Professional sports is when you almost kill yourself practicing.” “You don’t let up on yourself – you do everything to the end, everything to win.” “I am my own worst enemy. I always keep trying to be better than yesterday.”
Additional information about Bilodid was featured in a YouTube documentary that was recently posted on August 28, titled “Anaconda” (https://youtu.be/sk7tSu7x16A), that was sponsored by Mitsubishi Motors Ukraine.
Bilodid up close and personal: She has a marketing deal promoting cars and started taking driving lessons. She finds controlling her weight a constant challenge, because she likes to eat and sometimes not healthy food. She must stay strong and concentrate on training, and judo is her way of life and it makes her happy. She asked her mom if she could try judo training at age 6, fell in love with the sport and cannot imagine her life without judo. She began dreaming about winning future medals and World Championships at age 7. Studying at the university is important because life is more than judo, she says. She wants to learn other languages, like English and Italian, so she can communicate with her friends from other countries. Her most beautiful medal is from the Paris Grand Slam, while her most important medal is from the 2019 Worlds in Tokyo. To relax after rigorous training she walks the family dog and has spa treatments with sauna as a great means of recovery. Bilodid has special goals in her life and firmly believes she can accomplish anything if she wants it.
Ihor Stelmach may be reached at [email protected].