Tadahiro Nomura - Japanese Olympian

Tadahiro Nomura is one of the most famous judo competitors in Japan. He is the only judo competitor in the world, and the first Asian olympian, who has won gold medals at three Olympics in a row.

Tadahiro was born on December 10, 1974 in Nara. His grandfather was a local judo instructor and his father was the coach of Shinji Hosokawa, who won a gold medal at the 1984 L.A. Olympics. His uncle, Toyokazu Nomura, was also a gold medalist at the 1972 Munich Olympics.

He began learning judo at his grandfather's dojo at the age of six. He was successful in several local and national level competitions during high school.

He entered Tenri University in 1993, where he won the All-Japan Selected judo championships for his weight class in April,1996 and three months later he won his first Olympic gold medal in Atlanta.

Then he won his second Olympic gold medal at Sydney in 2000. He became the first -60kg division competitor to win consecutive Olympic gold medals. He won his third consecutive Olympic gold medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics.

Unfortunately, the news that he had won another Olympic gold medal was overshadowed by Ryoko Tamura's Olympic success in the newspapers, with her Olympic victory, coming on the same day.