2 athletes allowed per country/weight in World Championships

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The IJF has announced last month that it will allow all nations to send 2 athletes in each category to World Championships, starting at the Tokyo 2010.

This development came as a consideration to players that are not able to represent their countries at the highest level of WC. Since the new Olympic qualification system is based on the World Ranking, the athlete owns his place, not his country as it was in the past, which will provide a much more fair environment to fight for their qualifications.

This new rule reminds me of the European Champions League in Soccer or Basketball, where you have countries that send 2-4 teams (and sometimes 5 teams, like when Liverpool won the Champions League but didn’t finish in the EPL in the top 4).

This is a great opportunity for players that wouldn’t have been considered before to compete for the right to represent their country in the Olympic Games. On the other hand, we already have WC with many fighters in most divisions, such as 73Kg and 81Kg, with over 60 and sometimes over 70 competitors. If all nations will send 2 athletes, the pool for the draw will be extremely huge, which means a lot of fights in order to win a medal. In addition, since the new repechage rules that only those who reach the quarter-finals are entitled to compete for a medal, players will have to fight 4-5 or even more fights just to get to the quarter-finals. The challenge is for the IJF to manage such Championships.

The bigger issue here is that the richer nations that can afford sending a second athlete will use the extra player to block players from other nations, which will prevent them from qualifying to the Olympic Games.

Having said all the above, in order to be a true champion, one needs to beat everyone, even if it means beating 2 from each country.

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