Hitoshi Saito

Hitoshi Saitō (Japanese斎 藤 仁, Saitō Hitoshi, born January 2, 1961 in Aomori, Aomori Prefecture) is a former Japanese judoka, who won two Olympic gold medals in the heavyweight division.

Saitō visited the Kokushikan University from 1979 to 1983 at this time., He joined several times against the four -time World Champion Yasuhiro Yamashita and lost in all the major battles. In the Judo World Championships in Moscow in 1983 Yamashita won the heavyweight and Saitō competed in the open class. In the final he defeated Vladimir Kocman from Czechoslovakia and joined to it in the Japanese world champion in the Open Class, which won from 1965 to 1991 without interruption the title. At the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles Yamashita competed in the open class and won there as well. Hitoshi Saito started in the heavyweight division from 95 kg, its weight is given as 143 kg. In the Olympic final he faced the French defending champion Angelo Parisi and won after twenty years back Olympic gold for Japan in the heavyweight class.

In the final of the World Judo Championships 1985 in Seoul Saitō met the Korean Cho Yong -Chul and had to retire after an arm injury. After a victory at the Asian Games 1986, Saito 2007 injured at Japanese Championships and missed by the world championships. 1988 won Saitō in the Japanese Naoya Ogawa Championships against so won his first league title and qualified for the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul. There, participants won Japan's three bronze medals, but had not yet reached the final before the last day of struggle. In the semifinals, Saito met Cho Yong -Chul, he could beat this time. In the final round he defeated Henry Stöhr from the GDR. Two days after the Austrian middleweight Peter Seisenbacher Saito, making it the second judoka who could repeat his Olympic title four years later.

After his career was active Hitoshi Saitō as a coach at his university and for the Japanese Judo Federation. Among other things, he oversaw the Japanese team at the Olympic Games 2004.