Ryoko Tani

Ryoko Tani (Japanese谷 亮 子, Ryoko Tani; born September 6, 1975 in Fukuoka, Fukuoka Prefecture, born Tamura Ryoko ,田村 亮 子) is one of the most successful Japanese judoka and politician. She is two -time Olympic gold medalist and seven-time world champion.

Tani began at the age of eight years with the judo. On the international stage, she made ​​for the first time in 1991 at the World Judo Championships in Barcelona attracted attention when she was beaten at the age of 15 years, only in the final of Britain's Karen Briggs.

From 1993 on, she won seven of eight discharged World Championships the title in their weight class, extra light weight.

At Olympic Games to Tani 1992 had in Barcelona and 1996 in Atlanta each satisfied with the silver medal. At the games in Sydney in 2000, she won in the final against Russian Lyubov Bruletowa and was first in her career Olympic gold medalist. She successfully defended her title in 2004. In Beijing in 2008, she won the bronze medal.

Tani in Japan is known by the nickname Yawara -chan. The word yawara refers to a well-known figure from Naoki Urasawas judo manga Yawara! . Since 2003 she has been married to the Japanese baseball player Yoshitomo Tani, who also participated in the 2004 Olympic Games.

In the upper house election in 2010 Tani joined as a candidate of the Democratic party on the proportional representation list, reached with the nation's more than 350 thousand preference votes of the second list position and is elected for six years as a deputy. Your judo career, she initially wanted to continue in parallel and planned to qualify for the 2012 Summer Olympics. On 15 October 2010 she gave her resignation as an athlete. In summer 2012, Tani presented together with other opponents of the planned doubling of VAT by Ichirō Ozawa her party exit. She joined Ozawa's new party Kokumin no Seikatsu ga Daiichi.